 | Speaking Frankly Cancer patients rarely get to meet the researchers behind their treatments, and cancer researchers rarely get to put a name or face to the people who benefit from their work. Yet, that’s precisely what happened when retiree Frank Lovell and postdoc Jesse Patterson chatted after the Koch Institute’s recent SOLUTIONS with/in/sight.
Frank was a participant in a clinical trial showcased that evening, for a prostate cancer combination therapy pairing the widely-used targeted therapy abiraterone with the Plk1 inhibitor onvansertib. The trial also represents a powerful synergy, starting with the Yaffe Lab and their Bridge Project clinical collaborators, and catalyzed by a chance connection with west coast biotech Trovagene. For patients like Frank, this combination is turning out to be far greater than the sum of its parts. |
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24-Hour Challenge Greetings, cancer fighters! TODAY the Koch Institute is throwing down in MIT’s 24-Hour Challenge. At stake is critical, unrestricted support for research, trainees, and cutting-edge equipment to keep the KI on the frontline of progress against cancer. In this year’s challenge all gifts benefit the Koch Institute Director’s Fund, where gifts from 120 donors will unlock an anonymous challenge gift of an extra $10K.
But wait, there’s more! Gifts from an additional 30 donors will unlock another $15K from Steve Corman '58, SM ’61, who for years has led by example on challenging oneself to do more to fight cancer. That’s an extra $25,000 up for grabs to advance research and training. Today’s challenge is all about the KI community coming together to support innovative solutions for cancer.
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New Model for Neuroblastoma The laboratories of Rudolf Jaenisch and Stefani Spranger, the Howard S. (1953) and Linda B. Stern Career Development Professor, have developed a mouse to study tumor development and immune response in neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer that has proven difficult to study in animal models. The mice, described in a study appearing in Cell Stem Cell, were modified to include human cells in parts of the nervous system. |
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Vote, STAT! The Koch Institute has not one, but two projects in the running in this year’s STAT Madness competition to find the best innovations in biomedicine. Vote for the Wittrup Lab’s “Velcro Cancer Therapy” in matchup 1 and the Belcher Lab’s SWIFTI imaging system in matchup 16—you can vote multiple times in one day, and don’t forget to spread the word on social media with the hashtag #STATmadness.
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Deep Learning at IAP Bhatia Lab grad student Ava Soleimany is helping to spread machine-learning tools into research labs across MIT with IAP course 6.S191 Introduction to Deep Learning. Co-designed and taught with Alexander Amini, her class begins with machine learning basics and culminates with students making real-world applications of their own. The pair were inspired to create the course through their own experiences using machine learning in research—Soleimany develops nanosensors for the early detection of lung cancer (supported by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via Upstage Lung Cancer).
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Amon Wins 2020 Nakasone Award Congratulations to Angelika Amon, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor of Cancer Research, on receiving the 2020 HFSP Nakasone Award! The award, given by the Human Frontier Science Program, honors scientists who have made important breakthroughs in the life sciences. This year’s award is given in recognition of Amon’s “discovery of aneuploidy-induced cellular changes and their contribution to tumorigenesis, which paved the way for exploiting aneuploidy as a therapeutic target in cancer treatment.” |
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