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Cancer Solutionsscience + engineering = conquering cancer together |
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 | What comes before pi?Pi Day festivities of course! With Pi Day just around the corner, the Koch Institute is celebrating a day early on 3.13 with community events and MIT's participation-based 24-Hour Giving Challenge. Mark your calendars and celebrate with us by helping the Koch Institute meet our microchallenge goal, where day-of contributions from 125 donors will unlock $12,000 in gifts from Lindsay Androski '98, and Glenda Mattes and Steve Corbin, in memory of Don Mattes '67, SM '69. |
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Solving the puzzle of immune evasionStefani Spranger’s work is focused on uncovering why some tumors evade the immune system’s attack. For example, her latest research, published in Cancer Immunology Research, reveals that lung cancer cells expressing SOX2 can block CD8+ T cells, undermining checkpoint blockade therapy. “By understanding these resistance mechanisms, we can develop smarter immunotherapies to outmaneuver cancer,” says Spranger. |
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| Koehler to lead MIT HEALSCongratulations to Angela Koehler on being named director of the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (MIT HEALS). MIT HEALS was established last year to bring together researchers from across the Institute to innovate new solutions to urgent challenges in health care. Koehler will be joined by two associate directors: Department of Biology professor Iain Cheeseman and Department of Biological Engineering professor Katharina Ribbeck. |
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| Apply for the 2025 Amon AwardAre you a grad student pursuing the life sciences or biomedical research outside the U.S.? We’re accepting applications for the Angelika Amon Young Scientist Award until June 13. Winners receive $1,000 USD and are invited to deliver a scientific presentation to the MIT community and network with faculty. |
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| Vote for the KI STAT MadnessIt’s that time of year again: the KI is squaring off with universities and research centers across the nation for the title of best research project in biomedical science and engineering. In this year’s STAT Madness, we have two teams in the running: Group 1, Matchup 4: the Traverso Lab’s “Squid-Inspired Drug Delivery” (as seen in Nature and MIT News) Group 2, Matchup 3: the Jaklenec, Langer, and Belcher Labs’ “Dynamic Duo” (as seen in ACS Nanoand MIT News) |
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| Science on the menuMIT hosted its annual “Breakfast with Scientists,” where some of the nation’s most talented high school researchers met with with leading scientific minds, including KI faculty members Amy Keating, Kristen Knouse, and Phillip Sharp. Student delegates were convened in Boston for the American Junior Academy of Science conference, held alongside the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. |
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 | Tardi-grade-A scienceAbout 60 percent of cancer patients in the U.S. receive radiation therapy, which can have severe side effects. In a study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team led by Giovanni Traverso discovered that a protein from tardigrades (microscopic "water bears") can protect human cells from radiation damage, minimizing treatment side effects. Read more» |
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| Seeing breast cancer in a new light Following FDA approval in 2024, Lumicell’s LumiSystem for real-time cancer detection is now commercially available in the U.S. Developed with early support from the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program, it reveals residual cancer cells during surgery to enable precise and efficient correction, improve patient outcomes and reduce the need for additional treatments. |
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| Protein location predictionInspired by AlphaFold, a groundbreaking tool for predicting protein structure, researchers led by Regina Barzilay and Richard Young developed ProtGPS, a machine learning model that predicts protein location based on the sequence of its amino acid components. In a Science study, the team demonstrated that ProtGPS can also predict how disease-related mutations change protein location as well as generate new protein designs targeted to a desired location. |
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| All signs go at AuronAuron Therapeutics, co-founded by Matt Vander Heiden, announced that the FDA has granted Fast Track designation to its therapeutic candidate, AUTX-703, paving the way for clinical development including a Phase 1 clinical trial in acute myelogenous leukemia set to open this year. |
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| Dual duty microneedlesA Jaklenec lab study in Nature Materialspresents novel microneedle patches for drug mRNA delivery and secure, anonymous information storage. This innovation could improve healthcare in low-resource settings and address challenges in the reliability, privacy, and equity of traditional paper and digital patient information systems.
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| A brief history of cancer immunotherapyAnkyra Therapeutics makes an appearance in GEN’s short overview of the long history of cancer immunotherapy. A Velcro-like protein, first developed in the labs of Dane Wittrup and former KI member Darrell Irvine, anchors immune-modulating cytokines within tumors, improving precision and minimizing side effects. |
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| Splice of LifeThe Burge lab has discovered a new type of control over RNA splicing, a process critical for gene expression. Appearing in a new Nature Communications paper, their study sheds light on how this control mechanism can go wrong—and serve as a potential therapeutic target—in acute myelogenous leukemias and other diseases. |
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