 | Advancing AI in Medicine
KI member Regina Barzilay is the first-ever winner of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence’s Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity, a new $1 million prize to honor individuals whose work in the field has had a transformative impact on society. Barzilay is being recognized for her work building machine learning models to develop antibiotics and other drugs, and to detect and diagnose breast cancer at early stages. In 2019 she spoke at the Koch Institute’s with/in/sight lecture series about her collaboration with MGH’s Constance Lehmann to improve mammography through artificial intelligence and co-chaired the Koch Institute’s Cancer Research Symposium on the integration of machine learning and cancer research. In addition to her own laboratory research, she is also working to make her diagnostic tools available for underprivileged populations around the world. |
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Á la CAR-T
The Chen Lab has identified a promising target for CAR-T cell-based therapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). CAR-T cell-based therapies have produced remarkable responses in patients with certain blood cancers, but translating that success to other cancers has proven challenging, due partly to off-target toxicity and the development of resistance to the treatment. In a study appearing in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers circumvented both of these outcomes in cell lines and mouse models of AML by targeting a mutant form of the gene NPM1c that is only expressed in cancer cells. The Chen Lab will adapt this approach to target NPM1c using natural killer cells (CAR-NK), with support from the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Michael (1957) and Inara Erdei Fund and the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund. |
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NIH Honors Transformative Potential
Congratulations to Michael Birnbaum on receipt of a National Institutes of Health New Innovators Award for his work using peptide-MHC lentivirus display to identify repertoire-scale T cell antigens. Administered through the High Risk, High Reward program, the award celebrates highly innovative and unusually impactful research by extraordinarily creative early career scientists. Birnbaum, who joined the Koch Institute faculty in 2016, uses protein engineering, structural biology, and bioinformatics to understand and manipulate immune-cell recognition and signaling. |
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Breaking Up Isn’t Hard to Do
Cell division may look like hard work, but a team led by the Manalis Lab and including the Vander Heiden and Yaffe Labs found that mitosis may take much less energy than expected. In a study appearing in Nature Communications, researchers measured the membrane potential of mitochondria (the powerhouses of the cell) at single-cell resolution and then, using an “electrical circuit” mathematical model, estimated that mitochondria produce ATP (the cell’s primary fuel) about half as quickly during mitosis than outside mitosis.
This study was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund and the Lustgarten Foundation. |
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Diego Castrillon to Deliver Sixth Annual Lippard Lecture
The Koch Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center are delighted to welcome Diego H. Castrillon, Professor of Pathology and Obstetrics & Gynecology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for a combined Grand Rounds/Judith Ann Lippard Memorial Lecture on Thursday, November 19 from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. in the Eastern time zone on Zoom. Dr. Castrillon will present on “Endometrial cancer: genetic models and translational studies” and take questions from attendees. |
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RNA Interference Goes Bone Deep
Gene therapy through RNA interference holds promise for many diseases, yet targeting organs other than the liver remains difficult. A team including the Anderson and Langer Labs has developed nanoparticles that can deliver gene-silencing RNAs to the bone marrow. A new paper appearing in Nature Biomedical Engineering describes applications in heart disease, but the researchers are using the same technology to target multiple myeloma and other cancers, with support from the Bridge Project and the Misrock Fellowships.
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Nanoparticles Against Glioblastoma
Please join us on Monday November 9 for SOLUTIONS with/in/sight: Pushing Boundaries, Breaking Barriers in Brain Cancer. Investigators from the Hammond and Yaffe Labs are working across disciplines to combine nanotechnology and novel drug combinations to improve patient care. Discover how the team’s Trojan horse approach sneaks across the blood brain barrier and packs a one-two punch that hits cancer cells while their defenses are down. The program will run 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the Eastern time zone on Zoom and is open to all. |
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Binders Keepers
The Birnbaum Lab has developed a new platform that may help researchers better understand and predict how the immune system recognizes pathogens and cancerous cells. Described in Nature Communications, the platform identifies peptides able to bind class II major histocompatibility complexes (MHC-II), molecules that present protein fragments on cell surfaces. If CD4+ helper T cells recognize these complexes, they activate the immune response. The yeast-display-based approach has identified more unique MHC-II binders than comparable approaches, paving the way for improved accuracy of MHC-II binding prediction algorithms. The technology can be used to guide future selection of targets for CD4+ T cell recognition in cancer and beyond. |
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Rising Stars
Endpoints named Kronos Bio as one of 11 most promising startups in biotech. Built on high-throughput screening techniques developed by MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine member Angela Koehler, the company takes aim at “undruggable” cancer targets. Skyhawk, which draws on the research and expertise of several KI members, also made the list. |
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SeqWell S3: Better Than the Original
Shalek and Love Lab researchers have increased the resolution on their signature high-throughput single-cell RNA-sequencing platform using a simple molecular biology trick known as “second-strand synthesis.” The new and improved Seq-Well S3, described in Immunity, provides a five- and tenfold increase in identification of genes and RNA transcripts, respectively, and was applied to characterize various inflammatory skin conditions. The team is also using the technology to profile cancer cells, supported in part by the Bridge Project. |
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