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a tumor imaged after treatment, stained pink for IL12 and yellow for alum

Alum for the Ride

MIT News

January 10, 2022

Irvine and Wittrup lab researchers have developed a technique to make cytokine therapy less toxic. These immunostimulatory molecules are quite potent and can have devastating side effects if administered systemically. In a preclinical study appearing in Nature Biomedical Engineering and supported in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the researchers anchored the cytokines to tumors with aluminum hydroxide, a compound that is often used to make vaccines more effective. They then administered immune checkpoint blockade therapy, observing that the tumors were eliminated in 50 to 90 percent of the mice across three cancer types. The technology has been licensed to a startup company that hopes to begin clinical trials by the end of the year.

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Showing 271–280 of 421 stories

AI Comes to the Cancer Clinic

New York Times

November 20, 2018

Regina Barzilay makes a splash in The New York Times discussing the AI technologies that she hopes will transform the cancer clinic with George Church, Jennifer Egan, Catherine Mohr and Siddhartha Mukherjee. MIT News profiled one such technology, an AI model that uses deep learning to identify dense breast tissue in mammograms. The convolutional neural network-based model—the first of its kind to be successfully used in a clinic on real patients—evaluated mammograms as reliably as expert radiologists, according to the study published in Radiology.

Charting New Heights in Kendall Square

MIT Spectrum

November 20, 2018

Examining Kendall Square's transformation from “parking lots and gravel pits” to the epicenter of a biotech boom-town, Spectrum spoke with KI member and Kronos Bio founder Angela Koehler about her own journey from academia to industry. Her laboratory’s signature small molecule microarray technology uses chemical probes to screen for compounds that can fight back against some of the most recalcitrant targets in oncology. Kronos Bio stands poised to turn these “hits” into real blockbusters—taking both cancer research and Kendall Square by storm.

Seeking Stem

MIT News

November 20, 2018

In October, the Koch Institute highlighted the launch of the MIT Stem Cell Initiative, a deep dive into the biology of normal adult stem cells and their malignant counterparts, cancer stem cells. With support from Fondation MIT, a Swiss philanthropic organization, the initiative seeks to identify, purify, and propagate these relatively rare and elusive cells. Doing so will allow researchers to better understand their biology and learn how to utilize them more effectively in regenerative medicine applications and to target them in cancer.

Right on Target

MIT News

November 20, 2018

Researchers in the Keating Lab have developed a computer model capable of predicting how different peptides interact with members of the Bcl-2 protein family, which help to drive tumor growth. Drawing from a large pool of experimental data on the Bcl-2 family, the model generates a larger number of candidates and also offers greater control over a variety of protein traits than the standard approach of brute force library screening. Bcl-2 proteins are attractive candidates for cancer therapies; however, to avoid harmful side effects, such drugs often need to target just one family member. In a study appearing in PNAS, Keating and her colleagues used the model to design peptides that locked onto Bcl-2 proteins with high specificity and affinity, each binding strongly to one family member but not the other two.

Congratulations, 2018 Karches Prize Winners

MIT Koch Institute

November 20, 2018

The KI is proud to congratulate the first annual Peter Karches Mentorship Prize winners: Shelby Doyle, Kim Nguyen, Peter Westcott, and Amanda Whipple. Each year, the prize will be awarded to up to four postdocs or graduate students in recognition of the important role trainees play in the mentorship of undergraduate students working in KI laboratories.

Beyond the Bridge: Manalis and Weinstock Honored

Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group

November 20, 2018

Congratulations to KI member Scott Manalis and his Bridge Project collaborator David Weinstock of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on their Allen Distinguished Investigator Award. Taking aim at chemotherapy resistance and cancer relapse, the dynamic duo will use the Manalis Lab's signature cell-weighing technology to study minimal residual disease in lymphoma. Like the Bridge Project, the Allen Distinguished Investigator program funds early-stage research that is less likely to receive support from traditional funding sources, but which has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of biology.

Sadtler Up to the Challenge

Forbes

November 20, 2018

Congratulations to 2018 KI Image Award winner, TED fellow, and KI Convergence Scholar Kaitlyn Sadtler on being named to the “Forbes 30 Under 30” list. A postdoctoral researcher in the Anderson and Langer Labs, Sadtler studies how novel biomaterials and implants can help the body's own immune system regenerate functional tissue. 

Gene Therapy Express

MIT News

November 20, 2018

The Weiss Laboratory has created a new tool to control gene expression. Drawing on techniques used to program synthetic DNA circuits, the researchers seek to regulate the interactions between RNA and RNA-binding proteins. The study, published in Nature Chemical Biology, demonstrates how these new synthetic RNA-only circuits can use small molecule drugs to precisely control the production of therapeutic proteins in vivo, without the need to deliver potentially unsafe DNA that could integrate chromosomally and be oncogenic. Strand Therapeutics, a startup company founded by Weiss, fellow KI faculty member Darrell Irvine, former Weiss Lab postdoc Tasuku Kitada, and the study's co-lead author Jacob Becraft, is adapting the approach for cancer immunotherapy. 

The Odd Couple

MIT News

November 16, 2018

Normally, probiotics and antibiotics don't get along, but a new study from the Langer Lab proves that, in the right conditions, they can team up to fight drug-resistant infection. In a study published in Advanced Materials, researchers showed that by delivering a combination of antibiotic drugs and probiotics, they could eradicate two strains of drug-resistant bacteria that often infect wounds. To keep the antibiotics from killing off the probiotics, they encapsulated the probiotic bacteria in a protective shell of alginate. If shown to be successful in future tests in animals and humans, the researchers envision that the probiotic-antibiotic duo could be embedded in new types of bandages and other wound dressings, where it could help heal infected chronic wounds. 

Together for Trainees: Announcing the 2019 Convergence Scholars

MIT Koch Institute

November 15, 2018

From imaging to immunology, mutations to metabolism, proteins to platform technologies, the 2019 class of Convergence Scholars boasts an impressive body of research, but it takes more than scintillating science to achieve professional success. The new cohort of post-doctoral researchers—members of ten KI laboratories within the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine and the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine—is stepping beyond the lab bench to build skills in leadership, communications, science policy and more. Learn more about the program and the projects here and here.