The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Science + Engineering... Conquering Cancer Together
MIT engineers, including Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, successfully found a new way to move materials through cell membranes by squeezing through a narrow constriction that opens tiny temporary holes. That allows proteins, DNA, and nanoparticles to enter the cells that could be used for many applications. The scientists see a potential for improved imaging, reprogramming proteins, and generating pluripotent stem cells. more...
Koch Institute Professor Bob Langer was awarded the prestigious 2013 Wolf Prize. The Israeli-based Wolf Foundation honors Langer for his contributions to chemistry. Wolf winners are considered strong candidates to receive the Nobel Prize. more...
Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, is one of eleven innovators to receive the award this year. Dr. Langer has received over 210 major awards to date, including the United States National Medal of Science in 2006. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and have helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce. more...
The New York Times reports that KI member Robert Langer’s innovative ideas and discoveries have resulted in treatments and therapeutic devices to help a wide range of diseases including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and schizophrenia. Dr. Langer and his lab, which typically includes about 60 postdoctoral and graduate students at any given time, have managed to successfully navigate the intersection of academic research with the world of industry, as demonstrated by 25 start-up companies and 811 patents. more...
KI member Robert Langer is a senior author of a paper appearing this month in Advanced Materials, profiling MIT researchers' new technique controlling spatial distribution of multiple cell types using tiny shapes made from a temperature sensitive polymer. Among their many applications the microstructures can be used to replicate tumor microenvironments, helping scientists understand complex associations like cell signaling and interactions between cell types, as well as advancing drug discovery. more...
September 20, 2012
Drug Delivery
Robert Langer, Koch Institute watch...
KI member Robert Langer is part of a team of MIT researchers that has combined two different frequencies of ultrasound waves to make the skin more permeable to therapeutics. The technology could pave the way for noninvasive drug delivery or needle-free vaccinations, and may enhance the effectiveness of transdermal patches already in use, like nicotine patches. more...
The sensors, made of silicon nanowires, were recently added to a new tissue scaffold and could be used to monitor electrical activity in surrounding tissue, control drug release or screen drug candidates. Using engineered cardiac tissue, a team of researchers from MIT, Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital was able to monitor cells' response to stimulants. The group's findings appear August 26 in Nature Materials. more...
KI Institute Professor Robert Langer will receive the 2012 Society of Chemical Industry Perkin Medal in September, for his achievements in chemical engineering. He is widely recognized as a leading innovator in biomedical engineering, biopolymers and tissue engineering. more...
KI researchers, together with physicians from Brigham and Women's Hospital, have engineered a nanoparticle that evades the immune system to fight bacteria. They created the new nanoparticles from a polymer, originally developed under a CCNE grant for use in cancer treatment, capped with polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is commonly used for drug delivery because it is nontoxic and can help nanoparticles travel through the bloodstream by avoiding detection by the immune system. The well-designed vehicles deliver powerful doses of existing antibiotics and may have great potential for treating infectious diseases. This research recently appeared in the journal ACS Nano. more...
KI researchers devised new nanoparticles that, triggered by UV light, can synthesize proteins to fight cancer cells once they reach the tumor site. The proteins battle the cancer cells while avoiding healthy cells, reducing side effects of treatment. The research appears in the journal NanoLetters. more...
KI researchers, along with scientists from BIND Biosciences and Brigham and Women's Hospital, have shrunk cancer tumors using targeted drug delivery nanoparticles that specifically attack cancer cells while avoiding the immune system. In this first human test, side effects were minimal and results achieved even in patients receiving substantially lower dosage than in typical chemotherapy treatment. The study appears in the April 4, 2012 edition of Science Translational Medicine. more...
A drug delivery device implanted in patients proved first successful results of released drug delivery that could usher in new era of telemedicine. Along with scientists from MICROCHIPS, two David Koch professors report their findings in February 16th issue of Science Translational Medicine. more...
Collaborative effort, including KI researchers, successfully delivered short strands of RNA to reduce inflammation. The findings are reported in the October 9, 2011 issue of Nature Biotechnology and could eventually lead to treatments for cancer and heart patients. more...
Robert Langer will be honored at an October 20, 2011 ceremony. Tom Standage, chair of the judging panel, described Langer as "one of the most innovative and influential biomedical engineers of our time". more...
David H. Koch Institute Professor Robert Langer is one of two recipients of this year's prestigious $250,000 prize.
The award recognizes research discoveries that show strong promise for improving human health. more...
In a paper recently published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the KI’s Langer Lab and the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Lab describe a new technique for building microparticles using a microscopic casting mold. The technique allows the scientists to control the shape and drug-release properties of microparticles, and could eventually be used to build large artificial tissues and organs. more...
Two Koch Institute members were recognized for outstanding achievement and contributions to science by the American Chemical Society. Robert S. Langer and Stephen J. Lippard will be honored at the society’s upcoming 242nd National Meeting in Denver. ACS Video of Lippard more...
KI and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals researchers collaborated to find a new nanoparticle that successfully delivered siRNA therapeutics into cells. The researchers tested over 1,500 diverse nanoparticles to deliver the drugs. The research paper appears in this week’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). more...
For patients inflicted with vocal cord damage, including laryngeal cancer, improvement may be on the way with a polymer that mimics vocal cords. The gel would be injected periodically to assist vocal cords rather than repair the scarred tissue causing the problem. KI’s Langer Lab collaborated with researchers at MGH and Harvard to develop the synthetic material. more...
2012 American Chemical Society’s esteemed Priestley Award won by Robert Langer in recognition of cutting-edge research that helped create the controlled-release drug industry and the field of tissue engineering. more...
Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital have developed a new way to produce nanoparticles that can deliver drugs for cancer and other diseases. The new production system offers greater control over the size and composition of the particles, allowing large quantities of homogenous particles to be rapidly produced. The particles are formed from a commonly used biodegradable polymer that can carry a large number of drug molecules and release them in a controlled fashion while evading the body's immune system. more...
Dinner at Walker Memorial, June 10, 2010. watch...
About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT's Daniel Anderson and Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion of genes into living cells for the treatment of disease. The resulting cross-institutional collaboration has led to a promising ovarian cancer formulation. more...
Robert S. Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor watch...
A nanotechnology therapy that targets cancer with a 'stealth smart bomb' is to begin patient trials next year in the first clinical test of a pioneering approach to medicine. The nanoparticle, which targets tumour cells while evading the body's immune system, promises to deliver larger and more effective doses of drugs to cancers, while simultaneously sparing patients many of the distressing side-effects of chemotherapy. more...
Tiny particles carrying a killer gene can effectively suppress ovarian tumor growth in mice, according to a team of researchers from MIT and the Lankenau Institute. The findings could lead to a new treatment for ovarian cancer, which now causes more than 15,000 deaths each year in the United States. more...
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on behalf of the Robert Langer Labs at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research announced today that they have signed a collaboration agreement with Korea University, on behalf of the Institute for Biomedical Research. The overall purpose of this collaboration is to develop a high impact biomedical research and education program. more...
KI research is paving the way for a revolutionary convergence of engineering and biology. more...
MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer has won the Millennium Technology Prize, the world's largest award for technology innovation. more...
