Koch Institute Symposium 2024

The 22nd Annual Koch Institute Symposium on Tumor Heterogeneity and Drug Resistance will take place on Friday, June 21, 2024. This year's speaker lineup features a robust array of experts, both internal to MIT and from external institutions around the US and abroad, representing multiple scientific disciplines and technical approaches that seek to better understand patient-specific variation in cancer progression and response to therapy. 

We cordially invite scientists, oncologists, and any other member of the biomedical community to join us in a day of engaging talks, stimulating conversations with colleagues, and of course camaraderie in our collective fight against cancer. As we explore issues ranging from divergent single-cell states and plasticity to mechanisms of resistance through signaling and epigenetics, please consider joining us at this year’s summer symposium hosted by MIT’s nationally recognized basic cancer center.

Agenda

8:30 AMCheck-in


9:00 - 9:05 AMOpening Remarks

Matthew Vander Heiden
Director, Koch Institute at MIT


9:05 AMSession One: Linking Cancer Cell State to Function 

Chairs: Katie Galloway and Paul Blainey
Koch Institute at MIT

Photo of Cedric Blanpain

Cédric Blanpain | Keynote
Université Libre de Bruxelles
"Mechanisms regulating tumor transition states"

Photo of Karuna Ganesh

Karuna Ganesh
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
"
Dissecting and targeting plasticity in metastatic colorectal cancer"


10:30 AM – 11:00 AM Break 

Photo of Sydney Shaffer

Sydney Shaffer
University of Pennsylvania
"
Tracking cell state plasticity in injury and cancer"

Photo of Alex Shalek

Alex Shalek 
Koch Institute at MIT
"
Does cell state matter in cancer?"


12:00pm – 1:30pm Lunch Break 


1:30 PMSession Two: Integrating Genomics & Signaling in Tumor Drug Response

Chairs: Anders Hansen and Yadira Soto-Feliciano
Koch Institute at MIT

Photo of Paul Mischel

Paul Mischel 
Stanford University
"Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA): Cancer’s dynamic circular genome"

Photo of Rameen Beroukhim

Rameen Beroukhim
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School
"
Effects of positive and negative selection on cancer genomes"


2:30 PM – 3:00 PM Break 

Photo of Neal Rosen

Neal Rosen 
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
"Mechanisms of primary resistance to RAS inhibitors"

Photo of Michael Yaffe

Michael Yaffe
Koch Institute at MIT
"
CRISPR-based interrogation of therapeutic resistance in ovarian cancer identifies known and novel targets"

Photo of Kate Chiappinelli

Katherine Chiappinelli 
George Washington University
"
Targeting transposable elements to reverse cancer immune evasion"


4:30pm – 4:35pmConcluding Remarks

Matthew Vander Heiden 
Director, Koch Institute at MIT