This year’s selected projects highlight the breadth of women’s health innovation across the MIT Media Lab and its clinical and research collaborations.
We’re excited to share the selected projects for the WHx 2026 Enabling Grants.
In its first year, the WHx program has focused on both growing new efforts and building on strong existing work in women’s health across the MIT Media Lab and with collaborators beyond the Lab. The 2026 Enabling Grants call invited proposals at different stages of development and across a range of research areas. In total, twelve proposals were submitted by ten groups.
A review committee of four MIT faculty members evaluated the proposals using a shared set of criteria, including scientific merit, research maturity, translational potential, and the scope of what each project could realistically accomplish at this stage. The committee also worked to shape a balanced portfolio—one that includes both earlier-stage exploratory ideas and more mature efforts with clearer paths toward clinical use.
To help ensure a fair process, conflict-of-interest procedures were put in place so that no one who submitted a proposal, including WHx Faculty Lead Canan Dagdeviren, reviewed their own work. Final selections were made through committee discussion and consensus.
The resulting group of projects reflects the breadth of women’s health innovation taking shape through WHx: new therapeutic ideas, emerging technology platforms, interdisciplinary collaborations, and research that can help open the door to future clinical and translational advances.
Selected WHx 2026 Enabling Grant Projects
1. Invisible Growing Strength: Adaptive Smart Garment for Progressive Resistance Training from Daily Movement
PI: Hiroshi Ishii
Team: Yue Yang, Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Lucy Li
This project explores an adaptive smart garment designed to support bone and muscle health. By integrating progressive resistance training into everyday movement, the team is investigating how wearable technology might make strength-building feel more natural and more accessible in daily life. The work brings together design, engineering, and health-focused innovation in a way that could open new possibilities for preventive care and physical well-being.
2. Investigating the Effect of Slow Wave Enhancement in Aging
PI: Pattie Maes
In collaboration with: Laura Lewis
Researchers: Cristina Velasquez, Nathan Whitmore
This project examines the relationship between sleep and neurodegeneration in aging, with a focus on slow wave enhancement. By studying how sleep patterns may influence health later in life, the team hopes to deepen understanding of aging-related changes and help inform future strategies for supporting cognitive and neurological health. It is an example of interdisciplinary work that can lay important groundwork for larger future studies.
3. Conformable Volumetric Ultrasound for Scalable Breast Cancer Screening
PI: Canan Dagdeviren, MIT Media Lab
Co-Investigator: Dr. Tolga Ozmen, Massachusetts General Hospital
This project aims to advance scalable ultrasound technology for breast cancer screening while addressing sex-based differences in disease progression and diagnosis. The work builds on an established body of research in conformable ultrasound and is strengthened by a close clinical collaboration with Dr. Tolga Ozmen, a surgical oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Together, the team is working toward a screening approach that could be more accessible, practical, and clinically relevant for broader use.
4. Novel Bioelectronic Treatment of Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis through Autonomous and Non-surgical Brain Implants
PI: Deblina Sarkar
This project explores a novel bioelectronic approach to treating breast cancer brain metastasis through autonomous, non-surgical brain implants. It represents an ambitious intersection of women’s health, bioelectronics, and therapeutic innovation. By testing a new mechanism and platform for treatment, the work may help expand how researchers think about intervention strategies for complex and difficult-to-treat conditions.
5. Vibrotactile Necklace for Vestibular Dysfunction in Women: A Wearable Balance Countermeasure
PI: Joe Paradiso
Co-Investigators: Sam Chin, Heather Panic
This project focuses on a wearable vibrotactile necklace designed to support postural stability in women with vestibular disorders. Bringing together expertise in wearable systems and clinical care, the team is exploring a balance countermeasure that could offer a practical and supportive tool for people living with vestibular dysfunction. The project reflects the kind of human-centered, translational research that WHx hopes to encourage.
Looking Ahead
What makes this portfolio especially exciting is not only the strength of the individual projects, but also the range of perspectives they bring to women’s health research. Some teams are building on well-established lines of work, while others are bringing their research into women’s health for the first time. Together, these selected projects reflect WHx’s commitment to supporting thoughtful, collaborative, and forward-looking research with the potential to improve women’s health in meaningful ways.
We look forward to following these projects over the coming year and sharing more as the work develops.
