| | Cancer Solutions science + engineering = conquering cancer together |
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| Volume 125: December 2023 |
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| | Tiny Technologies Go to the White House A team from the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine showed a Washington D.C. audience several examples of how nanotechnologies developed at the Koch Institute can transform the detection and treatment of cancer and other diseases. At "American Possibilities: A White House Demo Day,” principal research scientist Ana Jaklenec highlighted several groundbreaking technologies developed her group to improve vaccines and disease diagnostics and treatment. Jeremy Li, CEO and co-founder of Cision Vision and former Belcher Lab postdoc, presented a lymph node imaging device that has been named one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2023 and is currently being used in a dozen hospitals across the U.S. |
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| | | Targeting Titans of Transcription A signature technology from Angela Koehler is a low-cost screening tool for studying how transcription factors—proteins that regulate gene expression—interact with each other, and identifying compounds that modulate them. Beyond her lab, the platform contributes to translational work in her startup, Kronos Bio, which is now conducting clinical trials targeting MYC, a transcription factor whose dysregulation helps drive multiple cancers. |
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| | Anthrax Delivers Combining inspiration from nature with state-of-the-art machine learning and automation, the Pentelute Lab is inventing new chemistry platforms and techniques to develop therapies for cancer and beyond. To help solve biotechnology’s longstanding problem of delivering large and unwieldy molecules into cells, the lab hijacked the anthrax virus’s highly effective delivery system to transport antibody and peptide variants into cells to treat cancer. |
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| | | KI Trio elected to National Academy of Medicine Daniel Anderson, Darrell Irvine and Regina Barzilay have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine! Weinberg Lab alumnus and cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee, whose best-seller Emperor of All Maladies highlighted breakthroughs made by MIT’s cancer research community, was also recognized. Election to the academy is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizing outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Congratulations to all! |
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| Cheers to the Koch Institute's four recipients of the 2023 Mark Foundation Aspire Award! Darrell Irvine and Dane Wittrup received an award for their project, “Induction of Tumor-Eradicating Systemic Immunity via Leukocyte-Targeted Cytokine Therapy.” Regina Barzilay and Tyler Jacks won an award in support their work to develop “AI-Driven Modeling of T Cell Receptors.” |
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| | Moungi Bawendi wins 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Join us in congratulating friend of the KI Moungi Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry, on winning the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Bawendi has collaborated with Koch Institute members on the Lumicell Imaging System, a single-cell imaging technology for eliminating residual cancer cells during tumor resection. Supported in its early stages of development by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, the system is now on the fast track to FDA approval, and could help eliminate the need for repeat cancer surgeries, reduce the incidence of relapse, and lower healthcare costs. |
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| Congratulations to Michael Birnbaum on being named a Pew Innovation Fund Investigator. Together with co-winner Dan Littman, he will investigate how microbes and antigens drive harmful immune responses in the gut in inflammatory bowel disease. |
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| | “Every conversation that I have with Sue makes me smarter, happier, and wiser. She sets a model of great science, compassionate discovery, and powerful impact on real people in the real world.”
Susan Hockfield on Sue Desmond-Hellmann, a leader in the early development of gene targeted cancer therapies and winner of the inaugural Hockfield Cancer Research Prize. |
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| Congratulations to White Lab postdoc Tigist Tamir on winning one of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center's 2023 Dr. Eddie Méndez Scholar Awards! The award recognizes early-career underrepresented minority scientists and scientists with disabilities. |
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| The annual Peter Karches Mentorship Prize recognizes the exemplary mentorship of up to four postdoctoral researchers, graduate students or technicians from across Koch Institute laboratories. This year’s recipients are Ryuhjin (Angela) Ahn, Mushriq Al-Jazrawe, Colin Fowler, and B.J. Kim. Congratulations to all! |
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| | Immune Action at a Distance The Traverso Lab developed a gel-based platform for injecting immune-stimulating drugs directly into tumors. Ideally, direct injection of these drugs into a tumor will provoke a system-wide immune response, while avoiding the serious toxic side effects of systemic administration. In practice, tumors are difficult to target with precision and the drugs tend to leak away from the tumor too quickly. The team worked with colleagues at Mass General Brigham to design a thermoresponsive gel that is visible with a CT scanner, solidifies after injection, and releases drugs at a controlled rate. An Advanced Healthcare Materials study showed that in combination with checkpoint blockade therapy, the platform caused both treated tumors and untreated tumors at other locations to regress in mouse models. |
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| Nature rounds up everything you need to know about circular RNA, including advances from the Anderson Lab and its spinout Orna Therapeutics. By tying ends of RNA together, circular RNA can stick around longer than the linear RNA currently used in vaccines and other therapies. |
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| A Nature Genetics study from the Jacks Lab measuring the diversity of mutations within a tumor could help identify cancer patients who would benefit the most from immunotherapies called checkpoint blockade inhibitors |
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“It’s bringing something different to the table—particularly in science which has historically been very homogeneous. It’s really important to bring people with accents, people that look different, people with different experiences, because that's where innovation will happen.” Yadira Soto-Feliciano talks with Takara BioView
for National Hispanic Heritage Month |
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| Using fluorescent labels that switch on and off, the Boyden Lab has developed a method for simultaneously tracking several molecular interactions inside the cell. The technique, described in Cell, could help researchers better understand what happens inside cells, including in diseases such as cancer. |
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| Machine learning, AI and molecular biology come together for Yaffe Lab undergrad Charvi Sharma in Course 6-7, one of four new majors integrating data science with a second field. |
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| | Introducing the 2023-2024 Convergence Scholars The Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine and the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine are pleased to announce the 2023-2024 class of Convergence Scholars. The program is designed to enhance the career development of aspiring independent scientists with diverse interests across academia, industry, science communication, and STEM outreach. |
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“Was that really failure? Or was it just being an apprentice to trying to learn how to succeed?”
Robert Langer interviews with the Freakonomics podcast in their multipart series, “How to Succeed at Failing.” |
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| An implantable device from the Anderson and Langer Labs carries cells that produce insulin, plus a tiny oxygen-producing factory that keeps the cells healthy. The device, described in PNAS, could help control diabetes without the need for injections. |
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| Co-hosted by MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the workshop “New Approaches to Accelerating Biomedical Innovation: Case Study on Appendiceal Cancer” brought together stakeholders across academia, industry, patient advocacy groups, and regulatory spaces to lay a foundation for accelerating the development of new treatments for cancer of the appendix—a disease with few effective treatments and a low survival rate. |
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| Robert Weinberg talks to Washington Post Live about the state of cancer research and how technological advancements are transforming cancer detection and treatment. |
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| | | Missed our “Intercepting Ovarian Cancer” event last month? Video of presentations by MIT alumna and cancer survivor Parul Somani and KI faculty members Angela Belcher, Sangeeta Bhatia, and Paula Hammond is now available. |
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