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 | Cancer Solutionsscience + engineering = conquering cancer together |
| Volume 132: November 2024 |
|  | Lumicell lights the way to better patient outcomesResidual cancer cells can lead to costly and invasive additional treatments, drive disease relapse and progression, and worsen patient quality of life and survival. Lumicell has developed a cost effective, real-time imaging system for eliminating even single residual cancer cells during surgery and will greatly improve patient outcomes. Piloted with seed funding from the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program, the technology was FDA-approved earlier this year.
Developed by a multidisciplinary team with an entrepreneurial bent—including KI faculty member Linda Griffith, MIT Chemistry professor and 2023 Nobel laureate Moungi Bawendi, Jacks lab postdoc alum David Kirsch, and staff alum W. David Lee, '69, SM '70—the system was inspired by the investigators’ personal experiences of cancer and commitment to solving real problems for real people. |
| Lumicell, live and in person |
|  | Join us on December 3 to hear the team behind Lumicell’s technology recount their journey from Frontier through FDA and share their inspiration. |
| | | | Vander Heiden elected to National Academy of MedicineMatthew Vander Heiden, Koch Institute Director, is part of the 2024 class of new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Recognized for his pioneering work on cancer metabolism, Vander Heiden’s research has led to groundbreaking therapies for cancer and other diseases, influencing the future of cancer treatment. |
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| | | Dual defense against tumorsImplantable microparticles engineered by Ana Jaklenec, Angela Belcher, and Robert Langer deliver phototherapy and chemotherapy simultaneously to fight aggressive tumors. Phototherapy, a newer therapy type, uses particles heated by a laser to target and destroy tumor cells while preserving surrounding tissue. In a study of mice appearing in ACS Nano, the team's microparticles completely eliminated tumors while reducing side effects from chemotherapy and significantly prolonging survival. This research was funded in part by a Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellowship. |
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| |  | Introducing the 2024-2025 Convergence ScholarsThe Koch Institute is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 class of Convergence Scholars. Founded in 2017, the program is designed to enhance the career development of aspiring independent scientists with diverse interests across academia, industry, science communication, and STEM outreach. This year’s scholars are Amy Lee (Langer/Jaklenec Lab), Jose Ortiz (Yilmaz Lab), Meaghan McGeary (Jacks Lab), Ranjan Mishra (Weinberg Lab), Yuang Chen (Anderson Lab), and Zhengpeng (Jason) Wan (Kamm Lab). Congratulations, all! |
| | | Under the radarWhile AI shows promise in breast cancer screening, studies reveal it falls short for Black women due to underrepresentation in training data. Without diverse datasets, AI struggles to detect malignancies accurately across racial groups. To improve health outcomes, data science researchers such as Regina Barzilay are working to build more diverse datasets and develop approaches that ensure AI serves all racial and demographic groups equitably. |
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| | | ROS-y outlook for novel immune approachA new Wittrup lab advance uses reactive oxygen species-induced cancer cell death to help improve immunotherapy for solid tumors. Reactive oxygen species, which are naturally occurring molecules, act as biochemical switches that can turn various biological processes on or off. Using a single dose of their targeted enzyme administered within the tumor, the Molecular Cancer Therapeuticsstudy showed they could potently increase cancer cell death, enhance immune activity, and synergize with current immunotherapy for long-term tumor control in mice. |
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| | | Rhoda Zhang wins 2024 Collegiate Inventors CompetitionGraduate student Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang has won the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition in both the Graduate and People's Choice categories. With advisors Robert Langer and Ana Jaklenec, Zhang and KI postdoc Xin Yang are developing metal-organic frameworks and other safe, sustainable nutrient stabilizing materials to address global micronutrient deficiencies. They are also launching MOFe™ Coffee, the first iron-fortified coffee. |
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| | | Network newsUsing probabalistic networks, the Lauffenburger Lab built a computational method that will help make sense of the vast amounts of data generated by genomic, proteomic, and other research approaches. In a study appearing in Cell Systems, researchers modeled tuberculosis vaccines, and are currently using the approach to examine the tumor's microenvironment and its response to different therapies. |
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| | | Picture perfectLaura Kiessling and Edward Boyden have increased the power of expansion microscopy to the nanoscale, providing a cost-effective and accessible alternative to expensive super-resolution microscopes. The technique, featured in Nature Methods, is a single step, 20-fold expansion of tissue, rendering nanoscale features of cells—such as organelles or large proteins—visible with a conventional light microscope. |
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|  | Earlier this month, the Koch Institute celebrated the opening of “Object Lessons: Celebrating 50 Years of Cancer Research at MIT in 10 Items,” showcasing significant artifacts from the half century of discoveries and advancements that have positioned MIT at the forefront of the fight against cancer. The public is invited to explore objects ranging from one of the earliest PCR machines, developed in the lab of Nobel laureate H. Robert Horvitz, to a globe-trotting backpack that carried mobile RNA-sequencing devices from MIT to continents around the world. Visit the Koch Institute Public Galleries Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., to see the exhibit up close. |
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