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
(1/2) ICoN Fellow Andrea de Varda @andreadevarda.bsky.social and Ev Fedorenko @evfedorenko.bsky.social have revealed that AI reasoning models & humans struggle with the same tough problems—and take longer on them in parallel ways.
Article 🔗 news.mit.edu/2025/cost-of...
Article 🔗 news.mit.edu/2025/cost-of...
The cost of thinking
MIT McGovern Institute researchers find a surprising parallel in the ways humans and new AI models solve complex problems.
news.mit.edu
November 21, 2025 at 4:55 PM
(1/2) ICoN Fellow Andrea de Varda @andreadevarda.bsky.social and Ev Fedorenko @evfedorenko.bsky.social have revealed that AI reasoning models & humans struggle with the same tough problems—and take longer on them in parallel ways.
Article 🔗 news.mit.edu/2025/cost-of...
Article 🔗 news.mit.edu/2025/cost-of...
A new cross-species atlas created by Yang Tan researchers reveals how astrocytes—star-shaped cells and the brain’s most abundant non-neuronal cells—change across space and time. This resource gives scientists an essential lens for probing brain development, function, and disease.
November 20, 2025 at 4:41 PM
A new cross-species atlas created by Yang Tan researchers reveals how astrocytes—star-shaped cells and the brain’s most abundant non-neuronal cells—change across space and time. This resource gives scientists an essential lens for probing brain development, function, and disease.
(1/3) Read about Jinyoung Kang and Margaret Schroeder (@meschro.bsky.social)'s collaboration in developing a new imaging technique that can provide scientists across many fields with “clearer pictures of biological machinery”, originally featured in the Summer 2025 Newsletter.
November 18, 2025 at 4:45 PM
(1/3) Read about Jinyoung Kang and Margaret Schroeder (@meschro.bsky.social)'s collaboration in developing a new imaging technique that can provide scientists across many fields with “clearer pictures of biological machinery”, originally featured in the Summer 2025 Newsletter.
(1/3) Kyla Nichols, in her Yang Tan Collective Summer 2025 Newsletter feature, gives us an overview of her research on the gut-brain connection and what she wants to uncover about “why there might be strong sex-based differences in mental health disorders,”
November 12, 2025 at 5:37 PM
(1/3) Kyla Nichols, in her Yang Tan Collective Summer 2025 Newsletter feature, gives us an overview of her research on the gut-brain connection and what she wants to uncover about “why there might be strong sex-based differences in mental health disorders,”
Congratulations to Collective alumni and gene engineering superstars Omar Abudayyeh & Jonathan Gootenberg on their continued success beyond MIT! Your innovative spirit is truly shaping the future.
Listen now to their conversation on the podcast Frameshifts with Benjamin Arya:
Listen now to their conversation on the podcast Frameshifts with Benjamin Arya:
Omar Abudayyeh & Jonathan Gootenberg: Virtual Cells, Programmable Biology & the Quest to Hack Aging
YouTube video by Frameshifts with Benjamin Arya
www.youtube.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Congratulations to Collective alumni and gene engineering superstars Omar Abudayyeh & Jonathan Gootenberg on their continued success beyond MIT! Your innovative spirit is truly shaping the future.
Listen now to their conversation on the podcast Frameshifts with Benjamin Arya:
Listen now to their conversation on the podcast Frameshifts with Benjamin Arya:
Hugh Herr speaks with Tilly Lockey on her Open Bionics
podcast “Tilly Talks Tech” about his lived experiences and personal journey, his research and vision for the future of human augmentation, and about the beauty of human diversity.
podcast “Tilly Talks Tech” about his lived experiences and personal journey, his research and vision for the future of human augmentation, and about the beauty of human diversity.
He Lost His Legs — Then Revolutionised Bionics | Hugh Herr on Tilly Talks Tech!
YouTube video by Open Bionics
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Hugh Herr speaks with Tilly Lockey on her Open Bionics
podcast “Tilly Talks Tech” about his lived experiences and personal journey, his research and vision for the future of human augmentation, and about the beauty of human diversity.
podcast “Tilly Talks Tech” about his lived experiences and personal journey, his research and vision for the future of human augmentation, and about the beauty of human diversity.
(1/4) A new Tan-Yang Center for Autism Research study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders from researchers identifies the top ways workplaces can be made more inclusive for autistic employees.
Nonprofit org Neurodiversity in the Workplace also supported the study.
Nonprofit org Neurodiversity in the Workplace also supported the study.
October 23, 2025 at 3:42 PM
(1/4) A new Tan-Yang Center for Autism Research study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders from researchers identifies the top ways workplaces can be made more inclusive for autistic employees.
Nonprofit org Neurodiversity in the Workplace also supported the study.
Nonprofit org Neurodiversity in the Workplace also supported the study.
(1/2) Congratulations to the Yang Tan Collective faculty for winning inaugural MIT Health and Life Sciences (HEALS) Seed Grants!
October 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
(1/2) Congratulations to the Yang Tan Collective faculty for winning inaugural MIT Health and Life Sciences (HEALS) Seed Grants!
Reposted by Yang Tan Collective
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
Whole-brain, bottom-up neuroscience: The time for it is now
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology and how neurons work together to generate…
bit.ly
October 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
ICoN Center alumna @nogazs.bsky.social offers a fresh take on how the brain compresses visual information to guide intelligent behavior in @thetransmitter.bsky.social article: “The visual system’s lingering mystery: Connecting neural activity and perception”.
www.thetransmitter.org/the-big-pict...
www.thetransmitter.org/the-big-pict...
Connecting neural activity, perception in the visual system
Figuring out how the brain uses information from visual neurons may require new tools. I asked nine experts to weigh in.
www.thetransmitter.org
October 15, 2025 at 4:33 PM
ICoN Center alumna @nogazs.bsky.social offers a fresh take on how the brain compresses visual information to guide intelligent behavior in @thetransmitter.bsky.social article: “The visual system’s lingering mystery: Connecting neural activity and perception”.
www.thetransmitter.org/the-big-pict...
www.thetransmitter.org/the-big-pict...
In this talk at International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, ICoN Center director Ila Fiete dives into how the brain builds modular, high-capacity memory systems using structured neural scaffolds.
Listen now on YouTube:
💻 www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX1a...
Listen now on YouTube:
💻 www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX1a...
The Emergence Of Modular Structure by Ila Fiete
YouTube video by International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
www.youtube.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:10 PM
In this talk at International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, ICoN Center director Ila Fiete dives into how the brain builds modular, high-capacity memory systems using structured neural scaffolds.
Listen now on YouTube:
💻 www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX1a...
Listen now on YouTube:
💻 www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX1a...
From worms to mice, Ed Boyden's expansion microscopy method is now scaling to whole organisms—revealing nanoscale detail across entire bodies.
Read more here: analyticalscience.wiley.com/content/arti...
Read more here: analyticalscience.wiley.com/content/arti...
Seeing it all: the rise of entire-organism expansion microscopy - 2025 - Wiley Analytical Science
The largest repository of validated, free and subject-focused e-publications and online seminars in analytical science covering latest techniques, equipment, original research, editorials, and industr...
analyticalscience.wiley.com
October 8, 2025 at 6:42 PM
From worms to mice, Ed Boyden's expansion microscopy method is now scaling to whole organisms—revealing nanoscale detail across entire bodies.
Read more here: analyticalscience.wiley.com/content/arti...
Read more here: analyticalscience.wiley.com/content/arti...
(1/2) @sarthakc.bsky.social, from the lab of Ila Fiete, studies grid cells – “the GPS of the brain”.
Explore his research & findings with this snapshot of the work and papers he and his team worked on:
Explore his research & findings with this snapshot of the work and papers he and his team worked on:
October 3, 2025 at 6:32 PM
(1/2) @sarthakc.bsky.social, from the lab of Ila Fiete, studies grid cells – “the GPS of the brain”.
Explore his research & findings with this snapshot of the work and papers he and his team worked on:
Explore his research & findings with this snapshot of the work and papers he and his team worked on:
CRISPR-Cas12b, pioneered by Yang Tan Collective’s Feng Zhang, just hit a milestone: edited cells made insulin for months in a diabetes patient—no immunosuppressants needed.
Read here: www.wired.com/story/no-more-injections-crispr-offers-new-hope-for-treating-diabetes/
@broadinstitute.org
Read here: www.wired.com/story/no-more-injections-crispr-offers-new-hope-for-treating-diabetes/
@broadinstitute.org
Crispr Offers New Hope for Treating Diabetes
Gene-edited pancreatic cells have been transplanted into a patient with type 1 diabetes for the first time. They produced insulin for months without the patient needing to take immunosuppressants.
www.wired.com
September 29, 2025 at 7:18 PM
CRISPR-Cas12b, pioneered by Yang Tan Collective’s Feng Zhang, just hit a milestone: edited cells made insulin for months in a diabetes patient—no immunosuppressants needed.
Read here: www.wired.com/story/no-more-injections-crispr-offers-new-hope-for-treating-diabetes/
@broadinstitute.org
Read here: www.wired.com/story/no-more-injections-crispr-offers-new-hope-for-treating-diabetes/
@broadinstitute.org
Hugh Herr discusses the AMI (agonist-antagonist myoneural interface) surgery & the Yang Bionics Center’s latest advances in this recent Be-YOU-tiful Adaptive Warrior podcast episode “Dr. Hugh Herr: Bionics and Beyond”.
Listen now: www.bawarrior360.com/2025/07/15/dr-hugh-herr-bionics-and-beyond/
Listen now: www.bawarrior360.com/2025/07/15/dr-hugh-herr-bionics-and-beyond/
Dr Hugh Herr: Bionics and Beyond - Be-YOU-tiful Adaptive Warrior
The AMI Procedure and Magneto Micrometry This week I was honored to have back on my podcast, Dr Hugh Herr. Hugh is a bilateral below knee amputee and a professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT. H...
www.bawarrior360.com
September 23, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Hugh Herr discusses the AMI (agonist-antagonist myoneural interface) surgery & the Yang Bionics Center’s latest advances in this recent Be-YOU-tiful Adaptive Warrior podcast episode “Dr. Hugh Herr: Bionics and Beyond”.
Listen now: www.bawarrior360.com/2025/07/15/dr-hugh-herr-bionics-and-beyond/
Listen now: www.bawarrior360.com/2025/07/15/dr-hugh-herr-bionics-and-beyond/
Congrats to our friends at @harvardmed.bsky.social on the launch of the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center–studying how sleep, immunity, pain & gut health intersect.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/17/m...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/17/m...
Autism. Chronic pain. Rising colon cancer rates. New Harvard center explores urgent health problems. - The Boston Globe
Harvard's new Brain-Body Center will dive deep into health issues that have stymied researchers.
www.bostonglobe.com
September 17, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Congrats to our friends at @harvardmed.bsky.social on the launch of the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center–studying how sleep, immunity, pain & gut health intersect.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/17/m...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/17/m...
Full house at @harvardmed.bsky.social for today’s Brain Body Dialogues symposium — exploring connections between brain and body in health & disease.
September 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Full house at @harvardmed.bsky.social for today’s Brain Body Dialogues symposium — exploring connections between brain and body in health & disease.
Can a self-guided meditation app be just as helpful in managing stress and anxiety as in-person mindfulness-based interventions in autistic adults? Researchers in the Tan-Yang Center for Autism Research at MIT sought to answer this question in new research published in the journal “Mindfulness.”
Mindfulness app helps reduce anxiety and stress in autistic adults, study finds
New research indicates that a six-week self-guided mindfulness app helped autistic adults experience meaningful reductions in anxiety, stress, and negative emotions. The improvements remained stable e...
www.psypost.org
September 15, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Can a self-guided meditation app be just as helpful in managing stress and anxiety as in-person mindfulness-based interventions in autistic adults? Researchers in the Tan-Yang Center for Autism Research at MIT sought to answer this question in new research published in the journal “Mindfulness.”
Even the smallest choice lights up the brain like Times Square (in mice, according to the @intlbrainlab.bsky.social papers recently published in @nature.com). Congrats to Ila Fiete, Yang ICoN Center director, on her role in this landmark map of decision-making!
Everything everywhere all at once: Decision-making signals engage entire brain
The findings, gleaned from the most comprehensive map yet of brain activity during decision-making in mice, show that the process is even more distributed than previously thought.
www.thetransmitter.org
September 12, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Even the smallest choice lights up the brain like Times Square (in mice, according to the @intlbrainlab.bsky.social papers recently published in @nature.com). Congrats to Ila Fiete, Yang ICoN Center director, on her role in this landmark map of decision-making!
Congratulations to Chris Shallal, PhD student at Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology & Yang Center for Bionics, for being named an inaugural MIT Health and Life Sciences (HEALS) Graduate Fellow!
Image Credit: MIT Media Lab
Image Credit: MIT Media Lab
September 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Congratulations to Chris Shallal, PhD student at Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology & Yang Center for Bionics, for being named an inaugural MIT Health and Life Sciences (HEALS) Graduate Fellow!
Image Credit: MIT Media Lab
Image Credit: MIT Media Lab
Congratulations to Nidhi Seethapathi, a faculty member in the Yang ICoN Center, who is featured in MIT Technology Review 2025 class of “Innovators Under 35”! We can’t wait to see how her research will impact the world.
In Nov last year, we published a predictive theory of locomotor adaptation to novel environments, capturing learning and generalization phenomena in over ten experiments:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I'm honored to be featured on the 2025 Innovators Under 35 list for this work.
ter.li/7c0jek
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I'm honored to be featured on the 2025 Innovators Under 35 list for this work.
ter.li/7c0jek
September 8, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Congratulations to Nidhi Seethapathi, a faculty member in the Yang ICoN Center, who is featured in MIT Technology Review 2025 class of “Innovators Under 35”! We can’t wait to see how her research will impact the world.
Meet Emily Robinson, our newest Yang Brain-Body Fellow. An MIT Biology PhD student, she’s decoding how the vagus nerve senses inflammation.
In this image from her research, vagus neurons (blue) light up the carotid sinus—your body’s hypoxia alarm system.
In this image from her research, vagus neurons (blue) light up the carotid sinus—your body’s hypoxia alarm system.
September 5, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Meet Emily Robinson, our newest Yang Brain-Body Fellow. An MIT Biology PhD student, she’s decoding how the vagus nerve senses inflammation.
In this image from her research, vagus neurons (blue) light up the carotid sinus—your body’s hypoxia alarm system.
In this image from her research, vagus neurons (blue) light up the carotid sinus—your body’s hypoxia alarm system.
As cells age, their nuclei get wonky. @eboyden3.bsky.social & colleagues have developed a tool that “blows up” nuclei to reveal how warped shapes scramble gene control.
Read more here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Read more here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Expansion in situ genome sequencing links nuclear abnormalities to aberrant chromatin regulation
Microscopy and genomics are used to characterize cell function, but approaches to connect the two types of information are lacking, particularly at subnuclear resolution. Here, we describe expansion i...
www.science.org
September 4, 2025 at 3:08 PM
As cells age, their nuclei get wonky. @eboyden3.bsky.social & colleagues have developed a tool that “blows up” nuclei to reveal how warped shapes scramble gene control.
Read more here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Read more here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Big congrats to Yang GEAR Center grad student Jon Bessette—just named a 2025 @activatefellows.bsky.social 🌍🔧 Turning bold ideas into real-world impact.
🔗 www.activate.org/news/introdu...
🔗 www.activate.org/news/introdu...
September 3, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Big congrats to Yang GEAR Center grad student Jon Bessette—just named a 2025 @activatefellows.bsky.social 🌍🔧 Turning bold ideas into real-world impact.
🔗 www.activate.org/news/introdu...
🔗 www.activate.org/news/introdu...
Join K. Lisa Yang Brain Body Center, @harvardmed.bsky.social, and @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social at “The Brain Body Dialogues in Health and Disease Symposium” at Harvard on September 17 for an exciting program with discussions by nine leading experts!
More info: brain.harvard.edu/hbi_events/t...
More info: brain.harvard.edu/hbi_events/t...
The Brain Body Dialogues in Health and Disease Symposium - Harvard Brain Science Initiative
brain.harvard.edu
September 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Join K. Lisa Yang Brain Body Center, @harvardmed.bsky.social, and @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social at “The Brain Body Dialogues in Health and Disease Symposium” at Harvard on September 17 for an exciting program with discussions by nine leading experts!
More info: brain.harvard.edu/hbi_events/t...
More info: brain.harvard.edu/hbi_events/t...