Yang Tan Collective
@yangtancollective.bsky.social
The Yang Tan Collective accelerates collaboration in basic science, research, and engineering to realize translative strategies and technologies that achieve a healthy mind in a healthy body and improve human wellbeing at a global scale. yangtan.mit.edu
🔎 Volunteers needed for a research study: “Evaluation of Spring-Assisted Crutches”!
If you are interested & meet the criteria, fill out the survey via the QR code.
Please share as well!
If you are interested & meet the criteria, fill out the survey via the QR code.
Please share as well!
January 26, 2026 at 4:35 PM
🔎 Volunteers needed for a research study: “Evaluation of Spring-Assisted Crutches”!
If you are interested & meet the criteria, fill out the survey via the QR code.
Please share as well!
If you are interested & meet the criteria, fill out the survey via the QR code.
Please share as well!
From academia to biotech: Collective alum @ubadahsabbagh.com shares how embracing curiosity and cross-disciplinary thinking at @arcadiascience.com let him reimagine what a science career can look like.
www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...
www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...
Ubadah Sabbagh on thinking outside the box at a biotech firm
As chief of staff at Arcadia, Ubadah Sabbagh finds creative fulfillment in mixing science and business.
www.thetransmitter.org
January 22, 2026 at 5:08 PM
From academia to biotech: Collective alum @ubadahsabbagh.com shares how embracing curiosity and cross-disciplinary thinking at @arcadiascience.com let him reimagine what a science career can look like.
www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...
www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...
View this short video where two Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) alumni (one being Yang Tan Collective’s Feng Zhang!) reminisce about STS, their research, and why science can change the world for the better ⬇️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwaZ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwaZ...
Be Extraordinary: Fueled by Legends | Regeneron Science Talent Search Shapes Scientific Futures
YouTube video by Regeneron
www.youtube.com
January 20, 2026 at 7:49 PM
View this short video where two Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) alumni (one being Yang Tan Collective’s Feng Zhang!) reminisce about STS, their research, and why science can change the world for the better ⬇️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwaZ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwaZ...
Collective postdoc Laura Sancho Fernandez explains why losing plasticity isn’t all bad: in adult mouse brains, astrocytes release CCN1 to apply the brakes on plasticity, stabilizing neural circuits.
www.thetransmitter.org/astrocytes/a...
www.thetransmitter.org/astrocytes/a...
Astrocytes stabilize circuits in adult mouse brain
The glial cells secrete a protein that suppresses plasticity post-development.
www.thetransmitter.org
January 8, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Collective postdoc Laura Sancho Fernandez explains why losing plasticity isn’t all bad: in adult mouse brains, astrocytes release CCN1 to apply the brakes on plasticity, stabilizing neural circuits.
www.thetransmitter.org/astrocytes/a...
www.thetransmitter.org/astrocytes/a...
Learning isn’t shaped only by what happens to us, but also by what we observe in others.
A study led by two Yang Tan fellows shows how brains combine firsthand experience with observation—and why we still trust our own experiences more.
yangtan.mit.edu/learning-fro...
A study led by two Yang Tan fellows shows how brains combine firsthand experience with observation—and why we still trust our own experiences more.
yangtan.mit.edu/learning-fro...
Learning from each other - Yang Tan Collective at MIT
Yang Tan Collective at MIT
yangtan.mit.edu
January 7, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Learning isn’t shaped only by what happens to us, but also by what we observe in others.
A study led by two Yang Tan fellows shows how brains combine firsthand experience with observation—and why we still trust our own experiences more.
yangtan.mit.edu/learning-fro...
A study led by two Yang Tan fellows shows how brains combine firsthand experience with observation—and why we still trust our own experiences more.
yangtan.mit.edu/learning-fro...
Congrats to Shon Koren for being one of the winners of the @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social "2025 Beauty of the Brain" image contest!
👀🧠 View the title and caption for this beautiful image:
👀🧠 View the title and caption for this beautiful image:
December 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Congrats to Shon Koren for being one of the winners of the @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social "2025 Beauty of the Brain" image contest!
👀🧠 View the title and caption for this beautiful image:
👀🧠 View the title and caption for this beautiful image:
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: It’s the final day! Thank you for following along this series—and thank you for following us on any of our socials ♡ The last gift is...
1 incredible community – comprising more than 200 talented scientists, engineers, and designers! 👏
1 incredible community – comprising more than 200 talented scientists, engineers, and designers! 👏
December 24, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: It’s the final day! Thank you for following along this series—and thank you for following us on any of our socials ♡ The last gift is...
1 incredible community – comprising more than 200 talented scientists, engineers, and designers! 👏
1 incredible community – comprising more than 200 talented scientists, engineers, and designers! 👏
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Gift #2 is...
2 amazing universities: MIT and Harvard! These two universities house eight Yang Tan Collective centers (check Gift #8 to see them all)🌟
🎁 One last gift tomorrow & we think it’s a sweet one ☺️💕
2 amazing universities: MIT and Harvard! These two universities house eight Yang Tan Collective centers (check Gift #8 to see them all)🌟
🎁 One last gift tomorrow & we think it’s a sweet one ☺️💕
December 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Gift #2 is...
2 amazing universities: MIT and Harvard! These two universities house eight Yang Tan Collective centers (check Gift #8 to see them all)🌟
🎁 One last gift tomorrow & we think it’s a sweet one ☺️💕
2 amazing universities: MIT and Harvard! These two universities house eight Yang Tan Collective centers (check Gift #8 to see them all)🌟
🎁 One last gift tomorrow & we think it’s a sweet one ☺️💕
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Today’s gift is the last research gift and it comes from a Harvard lab! Did you guess it? It's...
3 senses (seeing, hearing, smelling) aren’t enough to satisfy social need in the absence of touch in a study published by Harvard’s Dulac lab 🫂
⬇️ Link to article
3 senses (seeing, hearing, smelling) aren’t enough to satisfy social need in the absence of touch in a study published by Harvard’s Dulac lab 🫂
⬇️ Link to article
December 22, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Today’s gift is the last research gift and it comes from a Harvard lab! Did you guess it? It's...
3 senses (seeing, hearing, smelling) aren’t enough to satisfy social need in the absence of touch in a study published by Harvard’s Dulac lab 🫂
⬇️ Link to article
3 senses (seeing, hearing, smelling) aren’t enough to satisfy social need in the absence of touch in a study published by Harvard’s Dulac lab 🫂
⬇️ Link to article
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Did you guess Day 4’s gift? I won’t leave you hanging, its…
4 distinct neural pathways interact with the brain’s striatum region in order to finely tune dopamine levels to motivate or inhibit action.
📚⬇️ Link to read it below
4 distinct neural pathways interact with the brain’s striatum region in order to finely tune dopamine levels to motivate or inhibit action.
📚⬇️ Link to read it below
December 18, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Did you guess Day 4’s gift? I won’t leave you hanging, its…
4 distinct neural pathways interact with the brain’s striatum region in order to finely tune dopamine levels to motivate or inhibit action.
📚⬇️ Link to read it below
4 distinct neural pathways interact with the brain’s striatum region in order to finely tune dopamine levels to motivate or inhibit action.
📚⬇️ Link to read it below
What if aging didn’t have to mean a weaker immune system? 🧬🛡️ Feng Zhang & researchers in the Yang Brain-Body Center have found a way to reawaken immune strength.
🔗 Read the article about the study: yangtan.mit.edu/new-study-su...
🔗 Read the article about the study: yangtan.mit.edu/new-study-su...
December 17, 2025 at 4:36 PM
What if aging didn’t have to mean a weaker immune system? 🧬🛡️ Feng Zhang & researchers in the Yang Brain-Body Center have found a way to reawaken immune strength.
🔗 Read the article about the study: yangtan.mit.edu/new-study-su...
🔗 Read the article about the study: yangtan.mit.edu/new-study-su...
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Today’s gift comes from the GEAR Center! ☀️💧
5 times per second: the Yang GEAR Center’s solar-powered desalination platform senses and responds to changing sunlight as often as 300 times per minute, maximizing efficiency in real time.
⬇️ article linked below!
5 times per second: the Yang GEAR Center’s solar-powered desalination platform senses and responds to changing sunlight as often as 300 times per minute, maximizing efficiency in real time.
⬇️ article linked below!
December 16, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Today’s gift comes from the GEAR Center! ☀️💧
5 times per second: the Yang GEAR Center’s solar-powered desalination platform senses and responds to changing sunlight as often as 300 times per minute, maximizing efficiency in real time.
⬇️ article linked below!
5 times per second: the Yang GEAR Center’s solar-powered desalination platform senses and responds to changing sunlight as often as 300 times per minute, maximizing efficiency in real time.
⬇️ article linked below!
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: For Day 6, we have...
6 distinct functions are integrated in a single hair-thin fiber developed by Polina Anikeeva’s group! Read what the functions are in the graphics ⬇️
6 distinct functions are integrated in a single hair-thin fiber developed by Polina Anikeeva’s group! Read what the functions are in the graphics ⬇️
December 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: For Day 6, we have...
6 distinct functions are integrated in a single hair-thin fiber developed by Polina Anikeeva’s group! Read what the functions are in the graphics ⬇️
6 distinct functions are integrated in a single hair-thin fiber developed by Polina Anikeeva’s group! Read what the functions are in the graphics ⬇️
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: we posted about this one recently! Gift #7 is…
7 tasks, from simple arithmetic to complex grid-transformation problems, required the same amount of thinking by both humans and a computational model to reach a solution!
⬇️ article below
7 tasks, from simple arithmetic to complex grid-transformation problems, required the same amount of thinking by both humans and a computational model to reach a solution!
⬇️ article below
December 12, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: we posted about this one recently! Gift #7 is…
7 tasks, from simple arithmetic to complex grid-transformation problems, required the same amount of thinking by both humans and a computational model to reach a solution!
⬇️ article below
7 tasks, from simple arithmetic to complex grid-transformation problems, required the same amount of thinking by both humans and a computational model to reach a solution!
⬇️ article below
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: what does the Yang Tan Collective boast eight of? Gift #8 is—of course—the EIGHT centers!! 🧑🔬🧠
Can you name all eight?
Can you name all eight?
December 11, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: what does the Yang Tan Collective boast eight of? Gift #8 is—of course—the EIGHT centers!! 🧑🔬🧠
Can you name all eight?
Can you name all eight?
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Gift #9 🧬🧰
9 tiny units of genetic code make up each part of the TIGR guide RNA. These TIGR systems, discovered by Feng Zhang’s lab, are biological tools that can be reprogrammed to target any DNA sequence of interest, expanding the genome-editing toolbox!
9 tiny units of genetic code make up each part of the TIGR guide RNA. These TIGR systems, discovered by Feng Zhang’s lab, are biological tools that can be reprogrammed to target any DNA sequence of interest, expanding the genome-editing toolbox!
December 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: Gift #9 🧬🧰
9 tiny units of genetic code make up each part of the TIGR guide RNA. These TIGR systems, discovered by Feng Zhang’s lab, are biological tools that can be reprogrammed to target any DNA sequence of interest, expanding the genome-editing toolbox!
9 tiny units of genetic code make up each part of the TIGR guide RNA. These TIGR systems, discovered by Feng Zhang’s lab, are biological tools that can be reprogrammed to target any DNA sequence of interest, expanding the genome-editing toolbox!
(1/2) Yang ICoN Center's @evfedorenko.bsky.social spoke with @quantamagazine.bsky.social about her research, which shows how our brains parse language with LLM-like efficiency!
December 8, 2025 at 4:11 PM
(1/2) Yang ICoN Center's @evfedorenko.bsky.social spoke with @quantamagazine.bsky.social about her research, which shows how our brains parse language with LLM-like efficiency!
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: what will Gift #10 have in store for us today?
That’s right! It’s 10 future clinicians who are advancing through the Yang Center for Bionics training program! 🥼🦿 The featured picture shows a few trainees receiving their white coats 👏
That’s right! It’s 10 future clinicians who are advancing through the Yang Center for Bionics training program! 🥼🦿 The featured picture shows a few trainees receiving their white coats 👏
December 6, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: what will Gift #10 have in store for us today?
That’s right! It’s 10 future clinicians who are advancing through the Yang Center for Bionics training program! 🥼🦿 The featured picture shows a few trainees receiving their white coats 👏
That’s right! It’s 10 future clinicians who are advancing through the Yang Center for Bionics training program! 🥼🦿 The featured picture shows a few trainees receiving their white coats 👏
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: did you guess Gift #11? It’s…
11 ICoN Center Postdoctoral Fellows who are tomorrow’s leaders in computational neuroscience! 🧠Learn more about these iconic ICoN fellows at yangtan.mit.edu/icon/icon-center-researchers/
🎁 Any guesses for Gift #10?
11 ICoN Center Postdoctoral Fellows who are tomorrow’s leaders in computational neuroscience! 🧠Learn more about these iconic ICoN fellows at yangtan.mit.edu/icon/icon-center-researchers/
🎁 Any guesses for Gift #10?
December 5, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Twelve Days of Yang Tan Collective: did you guess Gift #11? It’s…
11 ICoN Center Postdoctoral Fellows who are tomorrow’s leaders in computational neuroscience! 🧠Learn more about these iconic ICoN fellows at yangtan.mit.edu/icon/icon-center-researchers/
🎁 Any guesses for Gift #10?
11 ICoN Center Postdoctoral Fellows who are tomorrow’s leaders in computational neuroscience! 🧠Learn more about these iconic ICoN fellows at yangtan.mit.edu/icon/icon-center-researchers/
🎁 Any guesses for Gift #10?
Happy December☃️✨! Join us as we celebrate the Collective’s amazing people, centers, & research! (I know the song starts off with 1 gift, but it’s ok if we start off with 12, right?)
🎁#12, we have: 12 @harvardmed.bsky.social faculty members!
Can you guess what Gift #11 might be?
🎁#12, we have: 12 @harvardmed.bsky.social faculty members!
Can you guess what Gift #11 might be?
December 4, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Happy December☃️✨! Join us as we celebrate the Collective’s amazing people, centers, & research! (I know the song starts off with 1 gift, but it’s ok if we start off with 12, right?)
🎁#12, we have: 12 @harvardmed.bsky.social faculty members!
Can you guess what Gift #11 might be?
🎁#12, we have: 12 @harvardmed.bsky.social faculty members!
Can you guess what Gift #11 might be?
Yang ICoN researchers are revealing the shared rules of balance across species. 🧠🚶♀️🐭🪰 Humans, mice, and flies all use the same error-correction strategy to stay upright, thanks to new work led by ICoN Center’s @nidhise.bsky.social & ICoN Fellow @antoinecomite.bsky.social.
Staying stable
Scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute have determined that animals with very different bodies likely use a shared strategy to balance themselves when they walk.
news.mit.edu
December 4, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Yang ICoN researchers are revealing the shared rules of balance across species. 🧠🚶♀️🐭🪰 Humans, mice, and flies all use the same error-correction strategy to stay upright, thanks to new work led by ICoN Center’s @nidhise.bsky.social & ICoN Fellow @antoinecomite.bsky.social.
On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we honor the many ways people move throughout the world and celebrate human potential in all its forms. View this short video to see the incredible research the Yang Center for Bionics is doing & how they celebrate every body!
December 3, 2025 at 4:58 PM
On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we honor the many ways people move throughout the world and celebrate human potential in all its forms. View this short video to see the incredible research the Yang Center for Bionics is doing & how they celebrate every body!
(1/3) Check out this short Q & A about the K. Lisa Yang Post-Baccalaureate program, especially if you or someone you know is a recent college grad who needs more experience before applying to PhD programs.
December 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM
(1/3) Check out this short Q & A about the K. Lisa Yang Post-Baccalaureate program, especially if you or someone you know is a recent college grad who needs more experience before applying to PhD programs.
(1/3) For the past few months, we've highlighted conversations Yang Tan Collective fellows and faculty have taken part in & we’ve collected all the podcasts and videos in one neat post in case you need something inspirational to listen to during the holidays (or whenever!)
November 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
(1/3) For the past few months, we've highlighted conversations Yang Tan Collective fellows and faculty have taken part in & we’ve collected all the podcasts and videos in one neat post in case you need something inspirational to listen to during the holidays (or whenever!)
Listen to the discussion between Hugh Herr & Bloomberg Businessweek Daily hosts as they discuss the future of bionic limbs and more on Bloomberg Podcasts!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5_2...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5_2...
Inside the MIT Lab Building The Future of Bionic Limbs
YouTube video by Bloomberg Podcasts
www.youtube.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Listen to the discussion between Hugh Herr & Bloomberg Businessweek Daily hosts as they discuss the future of bionic limbs and more on Bloomberg Podcasts!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5_2...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5_2...