Tyler Jacks

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KI Researchers Named Fellows of the Inaugural Class of the AACR Academy

KI members Tyler Jacks, H. Robert Horvitz, Phillip Sharp, and Bob Weinberg have been elected as members of the inaugural class of Fellows of the AACR Academy, which recognizes and celebrates distinguished scientists whose stellar scientific contributions in cancer research have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer. David Baltimore, a founding faculty member of the KI's predecessor, the MIT Center for Cancer Research, is also among the elected Fellows. The AACR Academy will be inducting its inaugural class of illustrious Fellows at the 2013 Annual Meeting this April. more...

How Does Cancer Learn To Spread?

The Jacks lab works to uncover the genes that enable the deadly spread of cancer. watch...

Understanding the Unmet Needs in Lung Cancer

May 24, 2012 Yolonda Colson, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Tyler Jacks, Koch Institute
Matt Meyerson, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (not recorded)
Alice Shaw, MGH and Koch Institute watch...

Koch Institute Members Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences today announced the election of 220 new members, among them the KI's Angela Belcher and director Tyler Jacks. The new class of fellows continue a 230-plus year history recognizing some of the world’s most accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders. One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, the Academy is also a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to Academy publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education. more...

Collaboration Key in Unique Attack on Cancer

The Bridge Project collaboration between the Koch Institute at MIT and Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) awarded funding to four interdisciplinary teams on March 6, 2012 The teams will work together on two of the most lethal forms of cancer - pancreatic and glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. The unprecedented clinical research effort awards teams made up of biologists, bioengineers and clinical researchers from both cancer centers. It is the most extensive collaboration of its kind between Boston's two National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers. more...

KI Director to be Named to National Cancer Advisory Board

In the White House announcement of his appointment, Jacks was recognized by the President for his depth of experience and tremendous dedication to cancer research. more...

Overexpressed Gene Could Lead to Improved Lung Cancer Therapy

In a recent issue of Genes and Development, KI researchers detailed their study of aggressive small cell lung cancer in mice models. Using whole-genome profiling, the researchers were able to identify sections of chromosomes that had been duplicated or deleted in mice with cancer, including a single overexpressed gene called Nuclear Factor I/B. These findings could pave the way for improved targeted therapy of lung cancer. more...

Welcome

Tyler Jacks, Director, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research watch...

Drug Found to Target Common Oncogene

KI researchers have identified a class of drugs with selective activity against cells expressing oncogenic K-ras – the most frequent oncogenic mutation in human cancer. The most potent member of this class, lanperisone, acts by inducing nonapoptotic cell death, selectively killing K-ras-expressing cells. more...

Gene Change Increases Lung Cancer Metastasis

KI researchers have identified a genetic change that makes lung tumors more likely to spread to other parts of the body. The findings, published in the April 6 online issue of Nature, offers new insight into how lung cancers metastasize and could help identify drug targets to combat metastatic tumors, which account for 90 percent of cancer deaths. The biologists in Tyler Jacks' lab found the alteration while studying a mouse model of lung cancer. They then compared their mouse data to genetic profiles of human lung tumors and found that reduced activity of the same gene, NKX2-1, is associated with higher death rates for lung-cancer patients. more...

A complex between DNA and the protein p53. Image: Thomas Splettstoesser

Timing is everything for p53

Since the early 1980s, cancer researchers have known that a protein called p53 plays a critical role in protecting cells from becoming cancerous. Knowing p53's critical role in controlling cancer, researchers have been trying to develop drugs that restore the protein's function, in hopes of re-establishing the ability to suppress tumor growth. In a new study that highlights a possible limitation of such drugs, MIT cancer biologists show that restoring p53's function in mice with lung cancer has no effect early in tumor development, but restoring the function later on could prevent more advanced tumors from spreading throughout the body. more...

Modeling and Personalizing Cancer 1

Tyler Jacks, Director, Koch Institute, and David H. Koch Professor of Biology watch...

Precancerous pancreatic cells (Image: Sharon Friedlander)

Possible origins of pancreatic cancer revealed

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing an estimated 35,000 Americans each year. One of the reasons pancreatic cancer is so deadly is that it is hard to detect it in the early stages, and that's partly because scientists aren't sure from which cell(s) it arises. Now, in findings that could help answer that question, MIT cancer biologists have identified a subpopulation of cells that can give rise to this disease. more...

Defining the combination of genetic circumstances that make certain lung cancers more treatable

A protein that normally helps defend cells from infection can play a critical role in the development of lung cancer, according to MIT cancer biologists. Their findings suggest that the protein, NF-kappaB, could be a promising target for new drugs against lung cancer, which kills more than one million people each year. more...

KI director Tyler Jacks elected to Institute of Medicine

Tyler Jacks was one of two from MIT elected to the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academies of Science. Jacks said he is honored to become part of the Institute of Medicine, which advises government officials on medical issues. "It's tremendous to be recognized in this fashion, and I'm extremely grateful," says Jacks, who is now serving a one-year term as president of the American Association for Cancer Research. more...

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