X

Spring/Summer 2019
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Course X News
cheme.mit.edu
MIT Chemical Engineering Alumni News

Cell-sized robots
can sense their
environment
Michael Strano and colleagues have
created what may be the smallest
robots yet that can sense their
environment, store data, and even
carry out computational tasks.
 Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology

About ChemE
XCurrents
Table of Contents
MIT Chemical Engineering Alumni News

Education 3 News from the Head

To offer academic programs that prepare
4 Practice School News
students to master physical, chemical,
and biological processes, engineering 5 Rising Stars in Chemical Engineering
design, and synthesis skills; creatively
shape and solve complex problems, 6 Research Highlight: Cell-sized robots
such as translating molecular
8 Faculty Highlights
information into new products and
processes; and exercise leadership in 10 Research Highlights
industry, academia, and government
in terms of technological, economic, 14 Thank you for your support!
and social issues.
16 Alumni Highlights

Research 18 In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus János Miklós Beér

To provide a vibrant interdisciplinary
research program that attracts the 20 Research Highlight: New materials improve delivery of messenger RNA
best young people; creatively shapes
22 Alumnus Highlight: Armon Sharei SM ’13 PhD ’13
engineering science and design through
interfaces with chemistry, biology, and 23 Student Highlight: Graduate Student Connor Coley
materials science; and contributes to
solving the technological needs of the
global economy and human society.

Social responsibility We want to hear from you! Newsletter Staff

To promote active and vigorous
E-mail: [email protected] Melanie Miller Kaufman
leadership by our people in shaping facebook.com/mitchemeng Editor
the scientific and technological context twitter.com/mitcheme
of debates around social, political, Instagram.com/mit_cheme Puritan Press
Printing
economic, and environmental issues
MIT Chemical Engineering
facing the country and the world. 77 Massachusetts Avenue Ink Design, inc.
Building 66, Room 350 Design
Cambridge, MA 02139
Many thanks to those who
contributed, including Web
Chappell, Gretchen Ertl, Felice
Frankel, Lillie Paquette, Emily
Tebbetts, and members of the MIT
News Office.
Acknowledgments

2
From the Department Head

Welcome to the Spring/Summer edition of XCurrents. Even though the snow just barely fully melted here in Cambridge,
you can sense a change in the air as the birds start to return, buds begin sprouting on the trees, and flip-flops once
again flourish among the student population.

There are many exciting things going on now in the department and on campus. One notable development to share: for
the first time in history, four out of the eight department heads in MIT’s School of Engineering will be women. Effective
July 1, my friend and colleague Angela Belcher will become the new head of the Biological Engineering Department,
joining Asu Ozdaglar of EECS, Evelyn Wang of MechE, and myself to round out the list. Angela is a remarkable
researcher, educator, and collaborator, and I look forward to her presence on Engineering Council as we work toward
continuing to provide the best research and educational opportunities for our students.

The Chemical Engineering Department itself is also working to help women in chemical engineering navigate academic
careers and increase the number of women who pursue faculty positions. Last fall, we hosted our first Rising Stars in
Chemical Engineering workshop, a two-day event where participants networked, presented research, and learned best
practices to become successful professors of chemical engineering.

My colleagues and I were immediately impressed with the caliber of these women, their research, and their talent.
Feedback from the event was very positive, and I welcome this and other opportunities to share lessons I’ve learned
from my own experiences; I know my colleagues feel the same way. Professors Karen Gleason ’82 SM ’82 and Klavs
Jensen headed the development of event, and we look forward to hosting more in the future. You can read more about
the October 2018 workshop on page 5. Also of note is the fact that our own graduate women have also formed a new
Graduate Women in ChemE organization led by two of our highly engaged students, Lisa Volpatti and Kara Rodby.
This group of women has already introduced programs and events that support our students and enhance the culture
of the Department.

You may have heard about the recent establishment of MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing. Artificial intelligence
is a valuable tool and strong area of research in chemical engineering, and often overlooked when considering our
field. One of our professors and a presenter at the Rising Stars workshop, Heather Kulik, has been seminal in the
development of computational tools for chemical engineering (as you can see from her list of recent awards on page
8). Heather’s work in cheminformatics pioneers computational approaches to the near-infinite chemical space to greatly
accelerate identification and design of new chemicals. Also in the realm of computation, graduate student Conner Coley
is using machine-learning to reprogram the way pharmaceuticals are designed. For his work, he has been named one
of Forbes’s 30 Under 30, while Chemical and Engineering News named him the “Machine-Learning Maestro,” one of
their 2018 Talented Twelve.

Starting in 2019, we have added three new computational tracks to our flexible undergraduate degree, 10-ENG. With
options to focus on Engineering Computation, Process Data Analytics, or Manufacturing Design, our students will
have the tools to address the unique engineering challenges of today. Over one third of our faculty have computational
research programs, and I look forward to sharing with you their work and contributions to this important area.

It is with deep sadness that we also share the passing of one of our beloved emeriti professors, János Miklós Beér.
János was thoughtful, soft-spoken, and unassuming, and a giant in the field of combustion and fuel engineering. I urge
you to read his full biography on page 18: While living in Hungary during WWII, János helped save countless lives as he
worked with Raoul Wallenberg to save Jews who were headed to concentration camps. Despite his accomplishments,
János always considered the wellbeing of others first, and he will be remembered and greatly missed. There will be
a tribute to János at the 2019 Clearwater Clean Energy Conference in June in Clearwater Beach, Florida. For more
information, go to www.ClearwaterCleanEnergyConference.com.

Throughout the pages of this edition of XCurrents, you will see examples of the amazing things going on in our
department. I’m proud of the accomplishments and ongoing work of our faculty and students, and look forward to
sharing more in the future.

Sincerely,

Paula T. Hammond
Department Head

3
 Practice School News

Greetings from the

MIT Practice School
In the past year, our students have continued the tradition of Fall 2018 Stations
working to solve real-world problems in industry while honing
their own research, communication, and teamwork skills. Here Emirates Global Aluminium, Dubai, UAE
are highlights from our recent stations around the world: Directed by Brian Stutts
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is among the world’s largest
Summer 2018 Stations aluminum producing companies. Consistent with EGA’s goal
of efficiency improvements, we contributed to cross-industry
MedImmune, Gaithersburg MD collaboration opportunities for reducing NOx emission in the
Directed by Thomas Blacklock UAE, fundamental studies in process measurements to better
At MedImmune, the biopharmaceutical arm of Astra control the smelting process, reducing process variation in
Zeneca, our students were challenged with a diverse set of the anode manufacturing process through improved anode
development problems. They tackled the full automation of modeling, and also design and efficiency improvements to
a monoclonal antibody isolation process, data mining of the plant infrastructure. One project was able to conceive
CHO-cell genetic pathways through RNA sequencing a design option that would reduce the capital cost of an
to predict culture behavior, elucidation of filter fouling infrastructure upgrade by an order of magnitude vs. prior
mechanisms and avoidance, predictive structure-based internal estimates.
degradation of monoclonal antibodies, antifoaming control
during mammalian cell culture, and use of AI to assess Shell Technology Center, Houston TX
undiscovered relationships among measurable culture Directed by Douglas Harrison
parameters and outcome. Shell has formed the New Energy Research Technology
(NERT) group, our host organization, within their Shell
Saint-Gobain Northboro Research and Development Center, Research to identify and implement new technologies
Northboro, MA in the areas of 1) carbon capture and utilization from the
Directed by Robert Fisher atmosphere, 2) production, transport, and storage of dense
Despite being over 350 years old, Saint-Gobain has been energy products, and 3) decentralized manufacture and
recognized as one of the 100 most innovative companies distribution of energy products. Our teams addressed
in the world. This session consisted of three projects; one eight projects, all of which were in the very preliminary
focused on developing a more thorough understanding stages of long term research. The students would study
of an existing polymer processing system (extrusion) and the technologies currently available, compare them with
need to evaluate alternative control strategies. Another was possible breakthroughs and establish a foundation and
involved with a proof-of-concept investigation requiring new plans for the internal research programs to be executed by
delivery systems to prevent particle segregation with mixed the NERT over the next 5 years. The basis for the study
powder flow to be injected into molds for abrasive wheels. would be an environment in which carbon emissions were
The third was related to a finishing material for the housing subject to costs (carbon taxes or other premiums) which
industry. All three projects required major experimental (and/ would catalyze the development of technologies to ultimately
or data mining) and modeling efforts, each being highly visible result in net negative growth of the concentration of CO2 in
platforms within the corporation. the atmosphere.

I look forward to continuing to share with you the ongoing

Students at the EGA station take a break to see the sights in Dubai. experiences of the students and their projects in future
newsletters.

Best regards,

T. A. Hatton
Director
David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice
 

4
Rising Stars

Helping women in chemical engineering

navigate academic careers
Inaugural Rising Stars in
Chemical Engineering
workshop seeks to increase
the number of women who
pursue faculty positions.

Professors and alumnae

Kristala Prather ’94
and Malancha Gupta
SM ’05 PhD ’07 share
their experiences with
workshop attendees.

On a blustery day at MIT, 22 female graduate students building a career, balancing family and research, and thriving
and postdocs from around the country converged to gain as a chemical engineering professor.
insight into the world of chemical engineering academia.
Nominated by department heads and professors in leading Professor Malancha Gupta SM ’05 PhD ’07, one of the
chemical engineering departments around the country, they speakers during the workshop, was impressed by the caliber
represented the top early-career women in their field. of the cohort.

The Rising Stars in Chemical Engineering program was “The attendees were very talented and ambitious,” she
based on other successful Rising Stars programs in the recalled. “The networking lunches and dinners were full of
School of Engineering and the School of Science, and for fantastic conversations about ways to make a more inclusive
two days, participants networked, presented research, and chemical engineering community. I am confident that the
learned best practices to become successful professors of attendees will become successful leaders in academia,
chemical engineering. industry, and national labs. I look forward to crossing paths
with them in the future.”
“The ChemE Rising Stars program was very helpful for me
as someone looking to become a successful professor in the Attendees said the tone of the first Rising Stars in
field of chemical engineering,” said attendee Molly Kozminsky, Chemical Engineering workshop was not only educational,
currently a postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley. but also hopeful.
“The program addressed the multiple components of the
interview process and was particularly helpful in demystifying “As was mentioned throughout the program, and particularly
the chalk talk.” by Dr. Karen Gleason, I do believe that the academic
opportunities for women in engineering have greatly improved
Karen Gleason ’82 SM ’82, the Alexander and I. Michael over the years,” attendee Amber Hubbard recounted.
Kasser (1960) Professor at MIT and head of the workshop’s “These professors provided so much wisdom, advice, and
steering committee, said the goal of the Rising Stars in encouragement about the future of our field and the potential
Chemical Engineering program is to “bring together the next each one of us has to make a lasting impression wherever
generation of leaders in the field and help prepare them for we end up in our careers. I certainly walked away from
careers in academia.” this experience excited and inspired about both chemical
engineering and academia.” X
During the two-day event, participants attended workshops,
met individually with MIT faculty, presented their own research
with feedback, and learned strategies for job searching,
5
 Research Highlight

Cell-sized robots
can sense their
environment
Made of electronic circuits
coupled to minute particles,
the devices could flow
through intestines or pipelines
to detect problems.
David L. Chandler, MIT News Office

Researchers at MIT have created what may be the smallest air molecules are stronger than the pull of gravity. Similarly,
robots yet that can sense their environment, store data, and colloids suspended in liquid will never settle out.
even carry out computational tasks. These devices, which are
about the size of a human egg cell, consist of tiny electronic Strano says that while other groups have worked on the
circuits made of two-dimensional materials, piggybacking on creation of similarly tiny robotic devices, their emphasis has
minuscule particles called colloids. been on developing ways to control movement, for example
by replicating the tail-like flagellae that some microbial
Colloids, which insoluble particles or molecules anywhere organisms use to propel themselves. But Strano suggests
from a billionth to a millionth of a meter across, are so small that may not be the most fruitful approach, since flagellae and
they can stay suspended indefinitely in a liquid or even other cellular movement systems are primarily used for local-
in air. By coupling these tiny objects to complex circuitry, scale positioning, rather than for significant movement. For
the researchers hope to lay the groundwork for devices most purposes, making such devices more functional is more
that could be dispersed to carry out diagnostic journeys important than making them mobile, he says.
through anything from the human digestive system to oil
and gas pipelines, or perhaps to waft through air to measure Tiny robots made by the MIT team are self-powered, requiring
compounds inside a chemical processor or refinery. no external power source or even internal batteries. A
simple photodiode provides the trickle of electricity that the
“We wanted to figure out methods to graft complete, intact tiny robots’ circuits require to power their computation and
electronic circuits onto colloidal particles,” explains Michael memory circuits. That’s enough to let them sense information
Strano, the Carbon C. Dubbs Professor of Chemical about their environment, store those data in their memory,
Engineering at MIT and senior author of the study, which was and then later have the data read out after accomplishing
published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. MIT their mission.
postdoc Volodymyr Koman is the paper’s lead author.
Such devices could ultimately be a boon for the oil and gas
“Colloids can access environments and travel in ways industry, Strano says. Currently, the main way of checking for
that other materials can’t,” Strano says. Dust particles, for leaks or other issues in pipelines is to have a crew physically
example, can float indefinitely in the air because they are drive along the pipe and inspect it with expensive instruments.
small enough that the random motions imparted by colliding In principle, the new devices could be inserted into one
6
 Diagram illustrates the design of the tiny devices, which are designed
to be able to float freely in liquid or air.

Optical images show circuits

made by the research team,
How to mass produce cell-sized robots
attached to particles just a few
hundred nanometers across.
The key to making such tiny devices in large quantities lies in a method the
team developed for controlling the natural fracturing process of atomically-
thin, brittle materials, directing the fracture lines so that they produce
miniscule pockets of a predictable size and shape. Embedded inside these
pockets are electronic circuits and materials that can collect, record, and
output data.

The novel process is called “autoperforation.” The system uses a two-

dimensional form of carbon called graphene, which forms the outer
structure of the tiny syncells. One layer of the material is laid down on a
end of the pipeline, carried along with the flow, and then surface, then tiny dots of a polymer material, containing the electronics for
removed at the other end, providing a record of the conditions the devices, are deposited by a sophisticated laboratory version of an inkjet
they encountered along the way, including the presence of printer. Then, a second layer of graphene is laid on top.
contaminants that could indicate the location of problem
areas. The initial proof-of-concept devices didn’t have a This photo shows circles on a
timing circuit that would indicate the location of particular data graphene sheet where the sheet is
readings, but adding that is part of ongoing work. draped over an array of round posts,
creating stresses that will cause
these discs to separate from the
Similarly, such particles could potentially be used for
sheet. The gray bar across the sheet
diagnostic purposes in the body, for example to pass through is liquid being used to lift the discs
the digestive tract searching for signs of inflammation or other from the surface.
disease indicators, the researchers say. X

For more information, go to

news.mit.edu
7
 Faculty Highlights

Martin Bazant elected APS Fikile Brushett receives

fellow, wins AIChE Acrivos 2019 Supramaniam
Award Srinivasan Young
Martin Bazant has been elected Investigator Award
as fellow of the American The Electrochemical Society’s
Physical Society (APS) for 2018. Energy Technology Division
APS Fellowship recognizes Supramaniam Srinivasan Young
members that have completed exceptional physics research, Investigator Award was established in 2011 to recognize and
identified innovative applications of physics to science and reward an outstanding young researcher in the field of energy
technology, or furthered physics education. Nominated by technology. Such early recognition of highly qualified scientists
the Division of Fluid Dynamics, Bazant was cited for “seminal is intended to encourage especially promising researchers to
contributions to electrokinetics and electrochemical physics, remain active in the field.
and their links to fluid dynamics, notably theories of diffuse-
charge dynamics, induced-charge electro-osmosis, and
electrochemical phase separation.” Heather Kulik wins 2019
NSF CAREER Award,
In honor of one of the great fluid dynamacists of the 20th DARPA Young Faculty
century, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Award, Mason Award
(AIChE) has renamed the Professional Progress Award, the The CAREER program offers the
Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical foundation’s most prestigious
Engineering. Bazant received this award for his outstanding awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of
progress in the field of chemical engineering, having made a teacher-scholars through outstanding research and education.
significant contribution to the science of chemical engineering Kulik’s project, “Enabling high-throughput computational
through the development of a new principle, process or discovery of stable and active single-site oxidation catalysts,”
product in the chemical engineering field. will advance computational tools to hasten the identification of
efficient single-site catalysts that could provide the chemical
and petroleum industries with new catalysts needed to
Richard Braatz elected to maintain our nation’s competitiveness in the chemicals and
NAE, AIChE fellow energy sectors of the economy.
Election to the National
Academy of Engineering (NAE) is The objective of the Defense Advanced Research Projects
among the highest professional Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is to
distinctions accorded to an identify and engage rising stars in junior research positions,
engineer. Academy membership emphasizing those without prior DARPA funding, and
honors those who have made outstanding contributions expose them to Department of Defense (DoD) needs and
to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, DARPA’s program development process. The YFA program
where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering provides funding, mentoring and industry and DoD contacts
literature,” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their
of technology, making major advancements in traditional research ideas in the context of national security needs.
fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative
approaches to engineering education.” Braatz in recognized First awarded in 2015 and funded by the Marion Milligan
for contributions to diagnosis and control of large-scale and Mason Fund, this American Association for the Advancement
molecular processes for materials, microelectronics, and of Science (AAAS) Award is designed to kickstart the research
pharmaceuticals manufacturing. efforts of early-career women researchers in the chemical
sciences. The 2019 awardees have made extraordinary
Fellow is AIChE’s highest grade and is achieved only through contributions through their research programs and
election by the AIChE Board of Directors. demonstrate a commitment to move their fields forward. Kulik
was recognized for her group’s work “harnessing first-principles
electronic structure in transition-metal chemistry and large-
scale enzymology to understand fundamental phenomena in
8 chemical bonding for catalyst and materials design.”
 Kristala Prather elected Román also received the 2018 Professor Amar G. Bose
2018 AAAS Fellow Research Grant, which supports work that is unorthodox,
Kristala Prather is among a and potentially world-changing. “The Bose grant is itself
group of 416 AAAS members like a catalyst,” says Román, whose research centers on
elected by their peers in heterogeneous catalysis. With the support of the Bose
recognition of their scientifically research grant, he will embark on a new exploration: the
or socially distinguished potential of electric fields to impact molecular interactions on
efforts to advance science. Prather’s research focuses on catalytic gas-solid surfaces.
designing new ways to engineer bacteria to synthesize useful
chemical compounds such as drugs and biofuels. She has
been recognized for her “distinguished contributions to the Hadley Sikes receives 2018
design and assembly of recombinant microorganisms for the ACS Best of BIOT Award
production of small molecules using synthetic biology.” The Best of BIOT award
recognizes the best
presentations from the ACS’s
Yuriy Román receives division of Biochemical
ACS’s inaugural Early Technology (BIOT) at the
Career Award, AIChE CRE National Meeting. Award winners discuss their work in
Young Investigator Award, the Best of BIOT Webinar Series; Sikes presented her
Rutherford Aris Award, and work on “Engineered binding proteins as replacements for
Bose grant antibodies in immunoassays” during the December 11, 2018,
The Catalysis Science and Biomolecular and Biophysical Processes webinar.
Technology Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS)’s
new award distinguishes individuals who have demonstrated
pioneering research accomplishments in the design or Zachary Smith receives
synthesis of catalysts and/or chemical or mechanistic DoE Early Career Award
characterization of catalysts leading to recognized The Department of Energy
advancements in our understanding and application of (DoE) has selected Zachary
catalysis. The Early Career Award recognizes and encourages Smith to receive significant
accomplishments and innovation of unusual merit by funding for research as part of
an individual in early stages of their career, emphasizing the DOE Office of Science’s
independence and creativity. Early Career Research Program. The effort, now in its ninth
year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce
The Rutherford Aris Award of the International Symposia by providing support to exceptional researchers during the
on Chemical Reaction Engineering recognizes outstanding crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most
contributions in experimental and/or theoretical reaction formative work. Smith was selected for his work on “Rational
engineering research of investigators in early stages of their Sub-Nanometer Manipulation of Polymer Morphology for
career. Román was nominated “for innovative advances in Efficient Chemical Separations.”
heterogeneous catalysis and processes for renewable energy
applications.”
Gregory Stephanopoulos
AIChE’s Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division (CRE) receives ACS BIOT Gaden
Young Investigator award recognizes individuals who Award
have made significant contributions to the science and/or Greg Stephanopoulos has been
technology of catalysis and chemical reaction engineering given the 2019 B&B Elmer
through publications or practice. The candidate must have Gaden Award for Biotechnology
made important and specific technical contributions to the and Bioengineering by ACS
discovery, invention, characterization, modeling, development, BIOT. As part of the award, he gave the annual Gaden Lecture
design or implementation of products, catalysts or processes at the annual ACS meeting on March 31, 2019. X
through ingenious and creative application of chemical
reaction engineering and/or catalysis concepts. 9
 Research Highlights

“Artificial blubber” protects divers in frigid water “We think the ability to deliver mRNA via inhalation could allow
When Navy SEALs carry out dives in Arctic waters, or when us to treat a range of different diseases of the lung,” says
rescue teams are diving under ice-covered rivers or ponds, Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MIT’s Department
the survival time even in the best wetsuits is very limited — as of Chemical Engineering, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute
little as tens of minutes, and the experience can be extremely for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical
painful at best. Finding ways of extending that survival time Engineering and Science (IMES), and the senior author of
without hampering mobility has been a priority for the U.S. the study.
Navy and research divers, as a pair of MIT engineering MIT researchers have designed
professors learned during a recent program that took them to inhalable particles that can deliver
a variety of naval facilities. messenger RNA. These lung
epithelial cells have taken up
particles (yellow) that carry mRNA
That visit led to a two-year collaboration that has now yielded
encoding green fluorescent protein.
a dramatic result: a simple treatment that can improve the
survival time for a conventional wetsuit by a factor of three,
the scientists say. The findings, which could be applied
essentially immediately, are reported in the journal RSC Living drug factories” may one day replace injections
Advances, in a paper by Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Patients with diabetes generally rely on constant injections
Professor of Chemical Engineering; Jacopo Buongiorno, the of insulin to control their disease. But MIT spinout Sigilon
TEPCO Professor and associate head of the Department of Therapeutics is developing an implantable, insulin-producing
Nuclear Science and Engineering; and five others at MIT and device that may one day make injections obsolete. Sigilon
George Mason University. recently partnered with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and
Company to develop “living drug factories,” made of
encapsulated, engineered cells that can be safely implanted
in the body, and produce insulin over the course of months or
even years. Down the road, cells may also be engineered to
secrete other hormones, proteins, and antibodies.

“This allows us to have ‘living drug factories’ inside our

bodies that can deliver therapeutics, at the right amount and
in the right location, as needed,” says co-founder and co-
inventor Daniel G. Anderson, an associate professor in MIT’s
Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute for Medical
Engineering and Science, and Koch Institute for Integrative
Cancer Research. “The hope is that this living device can be
From left, graduate student Anton Cottrill, Professor Jacopo Buongiorno placed in a patient, avoid the need for immune-suppression,
and Professor Michael Strano try out their neoprene wetsuits at a pool and provide long-term therapy.”
at MIT’s athletic center. Cottrill is holding the pressure tank used to treat
the wetsuits with xenon or krypton.

Engineers create an inhalable form of

messenger RNA
Messenger RNA, which can induce cells to produce
therapeutic proteins, holds great promise for treating a variety
of diseases. The biggest obstacle to this approach so far
has been finding safe and efficient ways to deliver mRNA
molecules to the target cells. In an advance that could lead to MIT spinout Sigilon Therapeutics has partnered with pharmaceutical
new treatments for lung disease, MIT researchers have now giant Eli Lilly and Company to develop implantable medical devices that
designed an inhalable form of mRNA. This aerosol could be act like “living drug factories,” encapsulating engineered cells that live
in the body for months, or years, and produce insulin. Down the road,
administered directly to the lungs to help treat diseases such
cells may also be engineered to secrete other hormones, proteins,
10 as cystic fibrosis, the researchers say. and antibodies.
 MIT chemical engineers
have devised a new
desktop machine that
can be easily reconfigured
to manufacture small
amounts of different
biopharmaceutical drugs.

MIT researchers used their new tissue preservation technique to label

and image neurons in a brain region called the globus pallidus externa.
Neurons that express a protein called parvalbumin are labeled in red, A new way to manufacture small batches of
and neurons labeled blue express a protein called GAD1.
biopharmaceuticals on demand
Biopharmaceuticals are increasingly important for “precision
Mapping the brain, cell by cell medicine” — drugs tailored toward the genetic or molecular
MIT chemical engineers and neuroscientists have devised profiles of particular groups of patients. Such drugs are
a new way to preserve biological tissue, allowing them to normally manufactured at large facilities dedicated to a single
visualize proteins, DNA, and other molecules within cells, and product, using processes that are difficult to reconfigure.
to map the connections between neurons. The researchers
showed that they could use this method, known as SHIELD, To help make more of these drugs available, MIT researchers
to trace the connections between neurons in a part of have developed a new way to rapidly manufacture
the brain that helps control movement and other neurons biopharmaceuticals on demand. Their system can be easily
throughout the brain. reconfigured to produce different drugs, enabling flexible
switching between products as they are needed.
“Using our technique, for the first time, we were able to map
the connectivity of these neurons at single-cell resolution,” “Traditional biomanufacturing relies on unique processes for
says Kwanghun Chung, an assistant professor of chemical each new molecule that is produced,” says J. Christopher
engineering and a member of MIT’s Institute for Medical Love, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT and a
Engineering and Science and Picower Institute for Learning member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer
and Memory. “We can get all this multiscale, multidimensional Research. “We’ve demonstrated a single hardware
information from the same tissue in a fully integrated manner configuration that can produce different recombinant proteins
because with SHIELD we can protect all this information.” in a fully automated, hands-free manner.”

New pill can deliver insulin Six days after treatment

An MIT-led research team has developed a drug capsule with IGF-1 carried by
that could be used to deliver oral doses of insulin, potentially dendrimer nanoparticles
(blue), the particles have
replacing the injections that people with type 1 diabetes have penetrated through the
to give themselves every day. About the size of a blueberry, cartilage of the knee joint.
the capsule contains a small needle made of compressed
insulin, which is injected after the capsule reaches the
stomach. In tests in animals, the researchers showed that
they could deliver enough insulin to lower blood sugar to
levels comparable to those produced by injections given
through skin. They also demonstrated that the device can be Potential arthritis treatment prevents cartilage
adapted to deliver other protein drugs. breakdown
Some drug treatments can help alleviate the pain of
“We are really hopeful that this new type of capsule could osteoarthritis, but there are no treatments that can reverse or
someday help diabetic patients and perhaps anyone who slow the cartilage breakdown associated with the disease. In
requires therapies that can now only be given by injection or an advance that could improve the treatment options available
infusion,” says Robert Langer, one of the senior authors of for osteoarthritis, MIT engineers have designed a new material
the study. that can administer drugs directly to the cartilage. The material
can penetrate deep into the cartilage, delivering drugs that
An MIT-led research
team has developed a could potentially heal damaged tissue.
drug capsule that could
be used to deliver oral “This is a way to get directly to the cells that are experiencing
doses of insulin. the damage, and introduce different kinds of therapeutics that
might change their behavior,” says Paula Hammond, head
of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, a member of
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the
senior author of the study. 11
 Research Highlights

Plug-and-play technology automates chemical to be successful, scientists need to make sure that the
synthesis implanted cells receive enough oxygen, which they need in
Designing a new chemical synthesis can be a laborious order to produce insulin and to remain viable. The Langer and
process with a fair amount of drudgery involved — mixing Anderson labs have now devised a way to measure oxygen
chemicals, measuring temperatures, analyzing the results, levels of these cells over long periods of time in living animals,
then starting over again if it doesn’t work out. The Jensen which should help them predict which implants will be
lab, with Chemistry’s Jamison lab, has now developed most effective.
an automated chemical synthesis system that can take
over many of the more tedious aspects of chemical MIT researchers are testing
experimentation, freeing up chemists to spend more time on encapsulated pancreatic islet
cells as a possible treatment for
the more analytical and creative aspects of their research. This diabetes. These 1.5 mm capsules
system could cut the amount of time required to optimize a are embedded with a fluorine-
new reaction, from weeks or months down to a single day, containing compound that allows
the researchers say. They have patented the technology the researchers to monitor their
and hope that it will be widely used in both academic and oxygen levels with MRI once
implanted in the body.
industrial chemistry labs.

“When we set out to do this, we wanted it to be something

that was generally usable in the lab and not too expensive,”
says Klavs F. Jensen, the Warren K. Lewis Professor of Researchers catalog defects that give 2-D materials
Chemical Engineering at MIT, “We wanted to develop amazing properties
technology that would make it much easier for chemists to Amid the frenzy of worldwide research on atomically thin
develop new reactions.” materials like graphene, there is one area that has eluded
any systematic analysis — even though this information
could be crucial to a host of potential applications, including
desalination, DNA sequencing, and devices for quantum
communications and computation systems. That missing
information has to do with the kinds of minuscule defects, or
“holes,” that form in these 2-D sheets when some atoms are
missing from the material’s crystal lattice.

Now that problem has been solved by the Strano and

Blankschtein labs, who have produced a catalog of the
exact sizes and shapes of holes that would most likely be
observed (as opposed to the many more that are theoretically
possible) when a given number of atoms is removed from the
atomic lattice.
MIT researchers have developed an automated chemical synthesis
system that can take over many of the more tedious aspects of The twelve different forms
chemical experimentation, freeing up chemists to spend more time on that six-atom vacancy
the more analytical and creative aspects of their research. defects in graphene can
have, as determined by
the researchers, are shown
in this illustration. The pie
Oxygen-tracking method could improve diabetes chart shows the relative
treatment abundances that are
predicted for each of these
Transplanting pancreatic islet cells into patients with diabetes different forms.
is a promising alternative to the daily insulin injections that
many of these patients now require. These cells could act as
a bioartificial pancreas, monitoring blood glucose levels and
secreting insulin when needed. For this kind of transplantation
12
Self-healing material can build itself from carbon in to screen individual patients’ tumors to predict whether such
the air drugs would be effective against them.
A material designed by MIT chemical engineers can react
with carbon dioxide from the air, to grow, strengthen, and “The same therapy isn’t going to work against all tumors,”
even repair itself. The polymer, which might someday be used says Hadley Sikes, an associate professor of chemical
as construction or repair material or for protective coatings, engineering at MIT. “Currently there’s a real dearth of
continuously converts the greenhouse gas into a carbon- quantitative, chemically specific tools to be able to measure
based material that reinforces itself. The current version of the the changes that occur in tumor cells versus normal cells in
new material is a synthetic gel-like substance that performs a response to drug treatment.”
chemical process similar to the way plants incorporate carbon
dioxide from the air into their growing tissues.
Computer system predicts products of chemical
“This is a completely new concept in materials science,” reactions
says Strano, the Carbon C. Dubbs Professor of Chemical When organic chemists identify a useful chemical compound
Engineering. “What we call carbon-fixing materials don’t exist — a new drug, for instance — it’s up to chemical engineers
yet today” outside of the biological realm, he says, describing to determine how to mass-produce it. There could be 100
materials that can transform carbon dioxide in the ambient air different sequences of reactions that yield the same end
into a solid, stable form, using only the power of sunlight, just product. Historically, determining the most efficient and
as plants do. cost-effective way to produce a given molecule has been
as much art as science. But MIT researchers are trying to
put this process on a more secure empirical footing, with a
computer system that’s trained on thousands of examples
of experimental reactions and that learns to predict what a
reaction’s major products will be. In tests, the system was
able to predict a reaction’s major product 72 percent of the
time; 87 percent of the time, it ranked the major product
among its three most likely results.

“There’s clearly a lot understood about reactions today,” says

Klavs Jensen, the Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical
Engineering, “but it’s a highly evolved, acquired skill to look at
a molecule and decide how you’re going to synthesize it from
starting materials.” X
Diagrams illustrate the self-healing properties of the new material. At
top, a crack is created in the material, which is composed of a hydrogel
(dark green) with plant-derived chloroplasts (light green) embedded in
it. At bottom, in the presence of light, the material reacts with carbon
dioxide in the air to expand and fill the gap, repairing the damage.

Sensor could help doctors select effective cancer

therapy
MIT chemical engineers have developed a new sensor that
lets them see inside cancer cells and determine whether the
cells are responding to a particular type of chemotherapy A new computer system predicts the products of chemical reactions.
“The vision is that you’ll be able to walk up to a system and say,
drug. The sensors, which detect hydrogen peroxide inside
‘I want to make this molecule.’ The software will tell you the route you
human cells, could help researchers identify new cancer should make it from, and the machine will make it,” says professor
drugs that boost levels of hydrogen peroxide, which induces Klavs Jensen.
programmed cell death. The sensors could also be adapted
For more information, go to
13
news.mit.edu
 Thank you
for your support!
Matthew J. Abel Karen L. Chang Tamara M. Floyd Laura S. Holgate
Roy A. Ackerman Victor T. Chang Stephen K. Fok William D. Holland
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George Alexopoulos Melanie P. Chin Richard W. Freedman Jane F. Hortelano
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John P. Angelos Donald K. Clarkson Adam G. Gebauer Norman A. Jacobs
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E. Jill Apelian Jerry A. Cogan Jr Sarakorn Gerjarusak Hugh R. James
Henry R. Appelbaum Grace E. Colon Martha B. Giberson Mottlene Jarvis
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Steven R. Bader Abel B. Cortinas Gustavo E. Grampp James E. Johnston
Bhavik R. Bakshi Gordon S. Craig Deborah L. Green Beth H. Junker
Lionel V. Baldwin Robert A. Cross William J. Grieco Mauritz J. Kallerud
Ronald J. Banducci Matthew S. Croughan Donald A. Grindstaff Elsa Kam-Lum
Robert E. Baron Nigel W. Curlet Philip M. Gross Angelo W. Kandas
Thomas M. Bartos Rebecca L. Dabora Philip M. Grover Jungmee Kang
Osman A. Basaran Marc G. Davidson Linda R. Guilette Henry S. Kao
William F. Beck Robert W. Davis Ramin Haghgooie Orhan I. Karsligil
Alexis T. Bell Steven G. De Cicco Mohammadreza Hajaligol William J. Kausch Jr
Richard I. Bergman Eleanor M. De Groot Qing Han Jeb E. Keiper
Leonard Berkowitz Patrick A. de Man Peter Harriott David F. Kelley Jr
Sue A. Bidstrup Pablo G. Debenedetti John S. Hartman III Cary J. King III
Gordon M. Binder Pankaj J. Desai Gary R. Hattery Nancy P. King
Harris J. Bixler Erik R. Deutsch Robert W. Hausslein Terry S. King
Gary S. Bliss Steven S. Dhawan David T. Hayhurst Linda D. Kiss
John T. Boepple Stephen C. Dodd Frank J. Hearl Robert D. Kiss
Robert E. Bohman Christopher J. Dowd Jr Murray J. Height Hans A. Klemm
Andreas S. Bommarius Brian J. Downs Robert W. Heinze David H. Klipstein
Edward D. Boston Ana T. Echaniz Joseph J. Helble Jr Ernest I. Korchak
Alain L. Bourhis Daniel L. Ellig Richard K. Helling David W. Kress Jr
Craig H. Boyce Morten A. Engel Kelly L. Hellmuth Edward J. Kronenberger III
James C. Bray Scott D. Engstrom Mary Jane J. Hellyar Val J. Krukonis
Norman F. Brockmeier Ramon L. Espino Andrew J. Heman Kristian I. Kudrnac
Henry T. Brown Timothy W. Evans Charles B. Henderson Catherine B. Labelle
Peter Brown Natasha M. Fair David C. Herak James Lago
Rodney F. Brown Peter C. Farrell Louis E. Herena Chiu-Kin S. Lai
Jean-Yves A. Buisson John E. Fay II Monique R. Herena Chung J. Lai
Christine Bunt Alan S. Feitelberg Stanley Herzog Frederick W. Lam
Jeffery W. Butterbaugh Joao P. Ferreira Arthur E. Higinbotham Araba A. Lamouse-Smith
Frank Cariello John A. Feyk Charles G. Hill Jr Paul R. Larson
Rudolf Carl Hunter H. Ficke Peter M. Hirsch Michael E. Laska
William H. Ceckler Edwin L. Field Karen J. Hladik Wanda W. Lau
Jennifer M. Chan Leslie A. Field Henry R. Holgate II James S. Law
14
This honor roll is a special salute to those who have given Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this
over $100 to the MIT Chemical Engineering Department for list. Please direct corrections to Melanie Kaufman, editor, at
the period of July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018. [email protected].

Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout

the year.

Andrew S. Lee James J. Noble Morley E. Russell James F. Tao

Boong-Kyu Lee Peter D. Noymer Gregory C. Rutledge Jefferson W. Tester
Chun-Hyuk Lee Catherine Nyarady Philip A. Ruziska Michael P. Thien
David S. Lee John P. O’Connell Lisa M. Ryan Jean Tilly
Joseph E. Leitgeb Catherine L. O’Connor Albert Sacco Jr Sonja L. Tong
Robert B. Lennox Delwin K. Ohrt Hemantkumar R. Sahoo Andrew Towarnicky
Lawrence J. Lewandowski Bernat Olle Suchitra N. Sairam Sergio C. Trindade
Philip C. Lewellen Charles H. Oppenheimer Hiroshi H. Saito Margaret C. Tsai
Jason G. Liang Lillian M. Oppenheimer Jeffrey B. Sakaguchi Janet Tse
William R. Licht Atsushi E. Osawa Todd R. Salamon Antonio Tuells Juan
Bruce D. Lilly Marlon A. Osbourne Dominick A. Sama Jaime A. Valencia-Chavez
Larry J. Lilly David J. Ostlund Catherine M. Santini Gheorghios Varsamis
Nelson P. Lin Ravinder K. Oswal John T. Santini Jr Craig B. Vaughn
Yanhong Lin Tuomas A. Paloposki Behrooz Satvat Michele C. Verticchio
Ben J. Lipps Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos Deborah E. Savage Nancy P. Vespoli
Christopher R. Loose Joseph J. Paterno Jr Rhonda J. Schaefer Preetinder S. Virk
Viorica Lopez-Avila Steven D. Perry Fred H. Schlesinger David E. Voit
Junfen Ma David F. Petherbridge John P. Schmidt Antonia J. Von Gottberg
Yi H. Ma Scott D. Phillips Hanno K. Schmidt-Gothan Friedrich K. Von Gottberg
Marc Machbitz Anna Pisania William J. Schmitt Beatrice Wang
Mariah N. Mandt Pemakorn Pitukmanorom Dean A. Schneider Chen Wang
Michael P. Manning John H. Pohl Steven F. Sciamanna Don S. Wardius
Geoffrey Margolis Baris E. Polat Thomas F. Seamans Robert A. Ware
Guy T. Marion Gregory S. Pollock Michael A. Serio Douglass J. Warner
Mary Lou Matulevicius Paul M. Premo Sonja A. Sharpe Alfred E. Wechsler
Siegfried T. Mayr Cordelia M. Price John W. Shield James C. Wei
David A. McClain William F. Pritchard Jr Rosemarie R. Shield Harold N. Wells
Lee P. McMaster Waqar R. Qureshi Ashley K. Shih Gary L. White
James D. McMillan William P. Raiford Kenneth R. Sidman Lawson E. Whitesides Jr
Karen M. McNamara Dilip Rajagopalan Philip G. Sikes Richard J. Wilcox
Marco A. Mena Carlos A. Ramirez Charles A. Siletti Ross P. Wilcox
Raghu K. Menon Alonso R. Ramos Vaca Ronald A. Sills John A. Wilkens
Stephen L. Michaels Xing Ran Harsono S. Simka Lucile S. Wilkens
Richard G. Miekka Michael J. Rappel Irwin B. Simon Patrick S. Wong
Theodoros G. Mihopoulos Elta M. Chian Ratliff Robert L. Slifer Walter F. Worth
Glen A. Miles Charles L. Reed III Amy A. Smiley Alexandra A. Wright
Clare L. Milton Ronald A. Reimer Brian R. Smiley Wesley Wright Jr
Geoffrey D. Moeser Eric S. Reiner Frank G. Smith III Michelle H. Wu
Vivek Mohindra Todd M. Renshaw Kevin V. Solomon Jirong Xiao
Carol L. Mohr Timothy J. Resch Arnold F. Stancell Kai W. Young
William C. Mohr James W. Rice Maureen S. Stancik Boyce John B. Yourtee
Charles W. Monroe Bradford D. Ricketson Raymond S. Stata Lei Zhang
Timothy L. Montgomery Auguste E. Rimpel Jr John E. Stauffer Xinjin Zhao
Albert L. Moore Carlos M. Rinaldi Thibaud S. Stoll Allyn J. Ziegenhagen
Jason S. Moore Gabriel J. Riopel John M. Storey Margaret F. Zussblatt
Eric M. Morrel Kimberly E. Ritrievi Pieter Stroeve Niels J. Zussblatt
John H. Moslen Sandra J. Roadcap Kyung W. Suh Andrew L. Zydney
Radha Nayak Brian D. Robeson William H. Sun
Karen K. Ng Joseph E. Rogers Charles E. Swain
Shih-Tung Ngiam Philippe Rose Dennis V. Swanson
Benjamin F. Nicholson Ronald E. Rosensweig Jeffrey S. Swers
William J. Nicholson Murray W. Rosenthal William Taggart
15
 Alumni Highlights For more information on these and other stories,
go to cheme.mit.edu/news/.

Institute Professor Emeritus Gareth McKinley

John M. Deutch ’61, PhD ’91 has been
PhD ’65 has made a elected to the National
generous endowment gift Academy of Engineering.
to name an MIT Institute McKinley, the School of
Professorship. This Engineering Professor
appointment — the highest of Teaching Innovation
honor awarded by MIT’s in MIT’s Department of
faculty and administration — recognizes faculty members who Mechanical Engineering,
have “demonstrated exceptional distinction by a combination was recognized for
of leadership, accomplishment, and service in the scholarly, contributions in rheology,
educational, and general intellectual life of the Institute or understanding of
wider academic community.” Deutch says his motivation for complex fluid dynamical
making the gift was his “great respect for MIT and for the instabilities, and interfacial engineering of super-repellent
tremendous professional and personal satisfaction I have textured surfaces.
enjoyed as a member of the MIT community for over
59 years.”
Venkat Ganesan PhD ’99
has been named a Fellow of
Mark Manary ’77 is the American Association for
waging a successful the Advancement of Science.
fight against childhood Ganesan is the Kenneth A.
malnutrition. From 1985 Kobe Professor in Chemical
to 2000, Manary pursued Engineering at the University
potential treatments of Texas at Austin. He is a
as he divided his time recipient of a NSF Career
between frontline Award, an Alfred P. Sloan
medical work in Africa and New Guinea, work in the US Foundation Fellowship and
Public Health Service, and a faculty position at Washington most recently the Dillon
University, where he had earned his MD. Manary and his Medal awarded by the American Physical Society. Ganesan’s
colleague André Briend developed a combination of roasted research efforts focus on developing coarse-grained models
ground peanuts, powdered milk, vegetable oil, sugar, and and simulations for the prediction of phase behavior of
vitamins that improved on products known as ready-to- protein-polymer mixtures, protein-polysaccharides, modeling
use therapeutic food (RUTF). In 2007, home-based RUTF the physics of protein resistant surfaces, structure and phase
therapy was internationally recognized as the standard of behavior of random copolymers which mimic biological
care for severe malnutrition, and Manary was honored with systems.
the World of Children Health Award and chosen as Academic
Humanitarian Physician of the Year by the American
Association of Medical Colleges. Hal Alper PhD ’06 has been
named the 2018 recipient of
AIChE’s Allan P. Colburn Award
for Excellence in Publications by a
Young Member of the Institute. Alper
was nominated and selected for
his seminal contributions in the field
of biochemical engineering, which
includes rewiring microbial systems to produce renewable
chemicals, fuels, and materials. Alper’s research focusses
on developing new ways to control the metabolism of
cellular systems through efforts of metabolic engineering and
16 synthetic biology.
 Bernat Olle PhD ’07 has Wayne Douglas Erickson SM
been named one of the ’58 ScD ’62
Boston Business Journal’s
2018 40 Under 40 honorees. Dr. Wayne Douglas Erickson died
40 Under 40 honors a group November 30, 2018, after an
of people who have climbed extended illness. He died peacefully
the professional ranks at a at home, which was as he wished.
young age while still finding He was pre-deceased by his
time in their busy schedules parents, Claud R. and M. Helen
to volunteer in their communities. Olle is a co-founder and Erickson, and his sister Shirley
Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Biosciences. In 2013 Dr. Young. He is survived by Alice,
Olle was named “Innovator of the Year” in MIT Technology his wife of almost sixty years, his son John, daughter-in-law
Review Spain’s “Innovators under 35” awards, and in 2015 he Carole, granddaughter Lydia and sisters Edith Davies [John]
was awarded the Princess of Girona business award by the and Dawn Tyler.
King of Spain.
He grew up in Lansing, MI, the fourth child and only boy in
the family. Every year he and his sisters spent the summers
In Memoriam on their grandfather’s farm in Reed City, MI, where Erickson
learned to drive a tractor at age nine. He earned four degrees
Gay V. Land ’44 in chemical engineering; BS and MS degrees from Michigan
1924-2019 State University, and SM and ScD degrees from MIT.

Gay V. Land died Jan 21 at his home in Atlanta. He was 94. In 1955, Erickson was a Second Lieutenant in the US
Land graduated from MIT in 1944 with a BS in chemical Air Force assigned to the National Advisory Committee
engineering and later received his MBA from the Wharton for Aeronautics (NACA) at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory.
School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduate work in Massachusetts, he returned to his
hometown in June 1958 and met Alice at a Fourth of
He married Elizabeth Cooper of New York City in 1945. July church picnic. They were married in March of the
After serving in Oak Ridge, Tennessee with the U.S. Army, following year.
he settled in Westport to raise his family. After a long career
in corporate development, he retired from the Celanese Erickson worked at NACA/NASA Langley as a research
Corporation and founded Vale Petroleum, an oil and gas engineer, a supervisor of various research sections and
exploration company. branches, Senior Scientist for Langley Research Center
and as Chief Scientist of various Divisions and Offices until
Land was involved in many community groups and was an 1995. In 1970 Wayne and the family went to Cambridge
avid sailor. He raced both one-design and cruising boats, University, England, for his research at the Physical Chemistry
often with his family as crew. He also loved to play golf and Laboratory. At the completion of the research Wayne was
served as the president of the Country Club of Darien. He asked to give a report to The Royal Society, which was an
was a longtime member of the United Methodist Church of experience of a lifetime. Other special projects included the
Westport and Weston, CT, serving on the building committee Apollo 13 Accident Review Board, teaching at MIT and NC
when the church moved its location to Rabbit Hill. State, and the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. X

17
 In Memoriam
Professor Emeritus
János Miklós Beér
Professor Emeritus János Miklós Beér helped Swedish diplomat Raoul
Wallenberg rescue Jews in Budapest.

Passionate advocate for cleaner of Technical and Economic Sciences. But in April 1944, Beér
was conscripted into the Hungarian army’s labor battalion,
combustion and refugee who helped and with the fascist Arrow Cross Party ascendant, he found
Raoul Wallenberg rescue Jews in Nazi- himself in danger of deportation to Germany.
occupied Hungary.
Then fate intervened: A friend of Beér’s introduced him to
the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who had arrived in
János Miklós Beér, professor emeritus of chemical and fuel Budapest with a plan to rescue Jews. Beér eagerly joined
engineering and a pathbreaking researcher in the field of the effort, distributing Swedish passes to Jewish prisoners
flames, combustion, and cleaner-burning fossil fuels, died in railway cattle cars before they could be shipped to
peacefully on Dec. 8, in Winchester at the age of 95. concentration camps, and then helping to ferry these people
to safety in diplomatically protected houses. In testimony he
Beér served on the MIT faculty from 1976 to 1993, helping left to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Beér said: “Wallenberg
to launch the Combustion Research Facility as part of the was very brave, but not reckless … and there was much
Institute’s Energy Laboratory. In 2003, U.S. Energy Secretary solidarity in our group.”
Spencer Abraham awarded him the Homer H. Lowry Award,
the department’s highest honor, for his work leading to Beér remained with the Swedish legation until the end of
commercial burners that achieved high efficiencies while the war, when he was able to reunite with his wife, Marta
minimizing noxious emissions such as nitrogen oxides. Gabriella Csato, whom he had married in October 1944.
They remained married until her death in 2017. Resuming
“Dr. Beér has made pioneering research and development his education, he received a first class honors degree from
contributions for 45 years to combustion science and József Nádor University of Technology in 1950, and became
technology of coal, oil, and gaseous flames,” Abraham said at a research engineer at Budapest’s Heat Research Institute, as
the award ceremony. “He has also been a major influence on well as a lecturer at Budapest Technical University.
industry through his publications and lectures to professionals
at national and international meetings, his leadership with Beér did not have long to enjoy his newly established
students on university campuses, and his service as a professional life, however. When Soviet tanks rolled into
consultant to many power and utility companies both in the Budapest in 1956 to put down the popular uprising against
U.S. and abroad.” the Communist regime, he and his wife fled from the mass
arrests. They landed as refugees in Scotland, where Beér
Beér’s early years in Central Europe unfolded against a found employment with Babcock and Wilcox Ltd. In 1957,
backdrop of the 20th century’s most tumultuous and violent the couple moved to England, and soon Beér was completing
episodes. Born on Feb. 27, 1923, in Budapest, Hungary, an his doctorate at the University of Sheffield. After receiving his
only child to Jewish parents, he attended that city’s University PhD in 1960, Beér took a position with the International Flame
Research Foundation (IFRF) in Ijmuiden, the Netherlands.
18
As head of station at the IFRF, a global research hub for detailing scaling laws for use in combustors and furnaces;
the industrial combustion community, “János performed studying single droplet combustion; and developing
with distinction,” noted Philip Sharman, current IFRF processes for reducing NOx emissions from a range of
director. He led a team of investigators “in a great deal of combustion sources.
pioneering research on the aerodynamics and mixing in
isothermal jet flames. … “Beér was a giant in his field of combustion,” said Gregory
Stephanopoulos, the Willard Henry Dow Professor in the
In 1963, Beér left to become a professor of fuel science at Department of Chemical Engineering. But he was not just
Penn State University. He then returned to the University of an accomplished researcher. Colleagues recall a friend
Sheffield, where he served on the faculty and later as head distinguished by a certain old-world charm.
of the school’s department of chemical engineering and fuel
technology. He was awarded a doctorate of science there in Paula Hammond, the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering
1968, and also served as dean of engineering from 1973 to and head of the MIT chemical engineering department,
1976, when he was recruited to MIT as professor of chemical recalls: “I knew János personally as he was my next door
and fuel engineering. office suitemate when I started as a faculty member. He was
the ultimate gentleman, warm, kind and ever thoughtful —
Throughout his career, Beér focused on improving electric asking me about my work and offering his support for me as a
power generation from fossil fuels, hoping to gain efficiency, new junior faculty member.
lower costs, and reduce emissions. Even after his retirement
from MIT, he pursued these goals, publishing in journals well “Although Janos will always be known for his many
into his 80s. During his career, Beér authored more than 300 outstanding achievements in establishing and expanding the
articles, co-authored “Combustion Aerodynamics” (Applied area of combustion engineering, his lasting contributions are
Science Publishers, 1972), a foundational textbook of the era his many past students, who were inspired and influenced by
that characterized flow patterns in flames and furnaces. his mentorship,” Hammond says.

Amongst his numerous honors, Beér received the Knight’s Yiannis A. Levendis, distinguished professor of mechanical
Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic for and industrial engineering at Northeastern University
his support of Hungarian higher education and research. remembers Beér’s arrival for a PhD student’s thesis defense,
In 2012, Beér received the Worcester Reed Warner Medal when Beér carefully fastened a pin on his ascot. “The
from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for his occasion of such an important event in a student’s life called
achievements, including such firsts as using water model for respectful formality,” Beér told Levendis.
studies as an analogy for describing combustion systems;
Adds Stephanopoulos: “As a true Hungarian, he appreciated
good coffee and had mastered the full art of brewing
temperature, duration, and amount of coffee to get a
perfect cup.”

“At the age of 95, I have known a lot of professors,” says

Edward W. Merrill, the C.P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical
Engineering, emeritus. “János was a delightful, warm person
— a great gentleman as well as teacher.”

There will be a tribute to Professor János Miklós Beér at

the 2019 Clearwater Clean Energy Conference in June in
Clearwater Beach, Florida. For more information, go to
www.ClearwaterCleanEnergyConference.com. X

Hungarian President’s Award by the president of the Hungarian

Academy of Sciences, Szilveszter Vizi, at the March 17, 2008,
ceremony at the academy in Budapest, Hungary. 19
 Research Highlight

New materials
improve delivery
of therapeutic
messenger RNA
Polymeric nanoparticles can
efficiently administer mRNA
to cells of the lungs, liver, and
other organs.

Anne Trafton, MIT News Office

In an advance that could lead to new treatments for a variety Other authors are research associate Yuxuan Huang,
of diseases, MIT researchers have devised a new way to postdoc Arnab Rudra, and David H. Koch Institute Professor
deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells. Robert Langer.

Messenger RNA, a large nucleic acid that encodes genetic Polymer control
information, can direct cells to produce specific proteins. Cells use mRNA to carry protein-building instructions from
Unlike DNA, mRNA is not permanently inserted into a cell’s DNA to ribosomes, where proteins are assembled. By
genome, so it could be used to produce a therapeutic delivering synthetic mRNA to cells, researchers hope to be
protein that is only needed temporarily. It can also be used to able to stimulate cells to produce proteins that could be used
produce gene-editing proteins that alter a cell’s genome and to treat disease. Scientists have developed some effective
then disappear, minimizing the risk of off-target effects. methods for delivering smaller RNA molecules, and a number
of these materials have shown potential in clinical trials.
Because mRNA molecules are so large, researchers have had
difficulty designing ways to efficiently get them inside cells. It The MIT team decided to package mRNA into new polymers
has also been a challenge to deliver mRNA to specific organs called amino-polyesters. These polymers are biodegradable,
in the body. The new MIT approach, which involves packaging and unlike many other delivery polymers, they do not have a
mRNA into polymers called amino-polyesters, addresses both strong positive charge, which may make them less likely to
of those obstacles. damage cells.

“We are excited by the potential of these formulations to To create the polymers, the researchers used an approach
deliver mRNA in a safe and effective manner,” says Daniel that allows them to control the properties of the polymer, such
Anderson, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of as its molecular weight. This means that the quality of the
Chemical Engineering and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute polymers produced will be the similar in each batch, which
for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical is important for clinical transition and often not the case with
Engineering and Science (IMES). other polymer synthesis methods.

Anderson is the senior author of the paper, which appears “Being able to control the molecular weight and the properties
in the journal Advanced Materials. The paper’s lead authors of your material helps to be able to reproducibly make
are MIT postdoc Piotr Kowalski and former visiting graduate nanoparticles with similar qualities, and to produce carriers
student Umberto Capasso Palmiero of Politecnico di Milano. starting from building blocks that are biocompatible could
20 reduce their toxicity,” Capasso Palmiero says.
 MIT researchers have designed
nanoparticles that can deliver
messenger RNA to specific organs. In
this image, lung cells expressing the
synthetic mRNA show up as red.

chemical features of polymers and their interactions with

different tissues in vivo. These novel polymeric nanomaterials
will facilitate systemic delivery of mRNA for therapeutic
applications.”

Targeting disease
The researchers did not investigate what makes different
nanoparticles go to different organs, but they hope to further
study that question. Particles that specifically target different
organs could be very useful for treating lung diseases such
as pulmonary hypertension, or for delivering vaccines to
immune cells in the spleen, Kowalski says. Another possible
application is using the particles to deliver mRNA encoding
the proteins required for the genome-editing technique known
as CRISPR-Cas9, which can make permanent additions or
deletions to a cell’s genome.

Anderson’s lab is now working in collaboration with

researchers at the Polytechnic University of Milan on the
next generation of these polymers in hopes of improving the
“It makes clinical translation much harder if you don’t have efficiency of RNA delivery and enhancing the particles’ ability
control over the reproducibility of the delivery system and to target specific organs.
the released degradation products, which is a challenge for
polymer-based nucleic acid delivery,” Kowalski says. “There is definitely a potential to increase the efficacy of these
materials by further modifications, and also there is potential
For this study, the researchers created a diverse library of to hopefully find particles with different organ-specificity by
polymers that varied in the composition of amino-alcohol core extending the library,” Kowalski says.
and the lactone monomers. The researchers also varied the
length of polymer chains and the presence of carbon atom The research was funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced
side chains in the lactone subunits. Research Projects Agency and the Progetto Roberto Rocca. X

After creating about three dozen different polymers,

the researchers combined them with lipids, which help
stabilize the particles, and encapsulated mRNA within the
nanoparticles.

In tests in mice, the researchers identified several particles

that could effectively deliver mRNA to cells and induce the
cells to synthesize the protein encoded by the mRNA. To their
surprise, they also found that several of the nanoparticles
appeared to preferentially accumulate in certain organs,
including the liver, lungs, heart, and spleen. This kind of
selectivity may allow researchers to deliver specific therapies
to certain locations in the body.

“It is challenging to achieve tissue-specific mRNA delivery,”

says Yizhou Dong, an associate professor of pharmaceutics
and pharmaceutical chemistry at Ohio State University, MIT researchers have designed nanoparticles that can deliver
who was not involved in the research. “The findings in messenger RNA to specific organs, in this case, the liver.
this report are very exciting and provide new insights on Cells expressing the synthetic mRNA show up as red.
21
 Alumni Highlight

Squeezing cells to cure diseases

Startup SQZ Biotech aims One day the team decided to run the cells through the
system without the jet and found that biomaterials in the
to open a new path in fluid still entered the cells. That’s when they realized that
immunotherapy with its constricting, or squeezing, the cell was opening up holes in
the cell membranes.
cell-compressing technique.
The discovery set off a string of experiments to improve the
process. In 2013, Sharei, Jensen, and Langer founded SQZ
Zach Winn, MIT News Office
Biotech to share the cell squeezing technology with other
research groups. But those collaborations didn’t produce the
kind of groundbreaking experiments Sharei and his team were
hoping for.
Cell-based immunotherapies, which often involve engineering
So SQZ pivoted from providing a lab tool to developing new
cells to activate or suppress the immune system, have
therapies. Sharei, whose undergraduate work in organic
delivered some dramatic results to cancer patients with few
electronics had made him an unlikely participant in the original
other options. But the complex process of developing these
research project to begin with, found himself with his first full-
therapies has limited a field that many believe could be a
time job running a company with a unique strategy.
powerful new frontier in medicine.

“At the time, the cell therapy industry was very focused on
SQZ co-founder and CEO Armon Sharei SM ’13 PhD ’13
CAR T-cell therapy and gene editing,” Sharei says. “We
says his company leverages a simple process — squeezing
thought there were much more powerful and simple concepts
cells so they can be penetrated by specific molecules — to
to implement [with SQZ], and you could hit a lot more
engineer a broader suite of cell functions than has been
diseases. This was an initially difficult message to convey to
possible with the gene therapy approaches that have
the field.”
attracted the bulk of the investments in the field.

But the broader perception of SQZ changed overnight when

The technology behind SQZ was discovered out of
the startup signed a partnership with Roche toward the end
exasperation as much as innovation. It began as a research
of 2015, which marked Roche’s first investment in cell-based
project in the lab of Klavs Jensen, the Warren K. Lewis
immunotherapies. “The long-term vision is a company that’s
Professor of Chemical Engineering.
creating many different cell-based therapeutics that have an
impact across different disease areas,” Sharei says. X
For over three years, researchers
on the project attempted to
shoot materials into cells using
a microfluidic device and a jet.
The cells proved to be difficult to
penetrate, often deflecting away
from the jet’s stream, so the team
started forcing the cells toward the jet
by constricting the cells through smaller
channels within the chip. Eventually the project
started to yield limited, often uncontrollable, results.

“It was a rough project,” remembers Sharei, who

joined the project as a PhD candidate when it was
roughly two years old, while being co-advised by Jensen
and Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor.
“There was quite a while when nothing was happening. We
kept banging our head against the wall with the jet technique.”
22
Student Highlight

Connor Coley, “Machine-Learning Maestro”

Graduate student Connor Coley has been named one of
Forbes’s 30 Under 30 for 2019. The magazine calls its 2019
30 Under 30 honorees “a collection of bold risk-takers who
are putting a new twist on the old tools of the trade.” Coley
was recognized in the “Healthcare” category; his citation
explains that “only one in ten experimental drugs tested in
patients reaches the market. Connor Coley has racked up
11 peer-reviewed papers trying to remove a bottleneck: the
synthesis of candidate drug molecules, using data science
and machine learning to reduce subjectivity and make the
job easier.”

Coley was also selected as one of 2018’s “Talented

Twelve” by Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN).
He was nicknamed the “machine learning maestro” and
recognized for his work in “reprogramming the way chemists
design drugs.”

Currently a member of the Klavs Jensen and William Green

research groups, Coley is focused on improving automation
and computer assistance in synthesis planning and reaction best to propose novel retrosynthetic pathways and validate
optimization with medicinal chemistry applications. He is those suggestions in silico before carrying them out in the
more broadly interested in the design and construction of laboratory. The overall goal of his work is to develop models
automated microfluidic platforms for analytics (e.g. kinetic or and computational approaches that — in combination with
process understanding) and on-demand synthesis. more traditional automation techniques — will improve the
efficiency of small molecule discovery.
The goal of many synthetic efforts, particularly in early stage
drug discovery, is to produce a target small molecule of As described in C&EN, “Machine learning aims to create
interest. At MIT, Coley’s early graduate research focused artificial intelligence systems that make decisions with little
on streamlining organic synthesis from an experimental intervention from people. Coley’s efforts in this arena have
perspective: screening and optimizing chemical reactions in a blossomed into a collaboration between MIT and eight
microfluidic platform using as little material as possible. drug industry partners, known as the Machine Learning for
Pharmaceutical Discovery and Synthesis Consortium. While
But even with an automated platform to do just that, most other chemists working in the field of machine learning
researchers need to know exactly what reaction to run. They and chemical synthesis use rules devised by experts to
must first figure out the best synthetic route to make the guide their systems, Coley relies on reactions in databases,
target compound and then turn to the chemical literature to such as those in U.S. patent filings, to teach the computer
define a suitable parameter space to operate within. As part what transformations will and won’t take place without being
of the DARPA Make-It program, Coley and his colleagues influenced by human bias.”
started working toward a much more ambitious goal. Instead
of automating only the execution of reactions, could a Earlier this year, Coley was also named a 2018 “Riser” by the
researcher automate the entire workflow of route identification, U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). X
process development, and experimental execution?

Coley’s recent research has focused on various aspects

of computer-aided synthesis planning to help make a
fully autonomous synthetic chemistry platform, leveraging
techniques in machine learning to meaningfully generalize
historical reaction data. This includes questions of how

23
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