The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT

Probing Enzyme Activity with Nanosensors

Using MIT ingenuity to create knowledge, tools, and treatments to fight cancer

How We Do It 

Our Research Areas

From fundamental discoveries to engineering advances, we strategically pursue five areas of research that, across tumor types, are critical for rapid progress toward defeating cancer.

Detection & monitoring  
Metastasis  
Immunology & immunotherapy  
Nano-based drugs  
Precision medicine  

News

IntereSTING Cancer Vaccine Developments

MIT News

May 12, 2023

The Belcher and Hammond Labs recently engineered a therapeutic cancer vaccine that could potentially make immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies effective for more patients. By stimulating the STING pathway, the vaccine eliminated 70%-100% of solid tumors and prevented recurrence with minimal side effects in preclinical studies of mouse melanoma and colon cancer models. Notably, the vaccine also showed promise in overcoming an immunodeficiency affecting 20% of the human population. Researchers hope the vaccine, Advanced Healthcare Materials, will make ICB therapies more effective and more broadly, viable for patients with loss-of-function STING mutations.

This study was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program and the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine.

Victor Damptey Wins 2023 Fulbright Fellowship

MIT News

Congratulations to the Hammond Lab's Victor Damptey on being named one of 2023's Fulbright Fellows!

Hammond Honored by MIT Faculty

MIT News

Congratulations to Paula Hammond for winning MIT's Killian Award!

More News 

At the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, scientists and engineers work come together to solve some of the most difficult problems in cancer. We ask big questions in strategic areas, where the answers have big impacts on how we understand and treat cancer.