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Photo of Tyler Jacks standing in front of a wall of colorful scientific images in the Koch Institute lobby and smiling for the camera.

Tyler Jacks Receives ACS Medal of Honor

American Cancer Society

March 6, 2026

Congratulations to Koch Institute Founding Director Tyler Jacks, who has been selected to receive the 2026 American Cancer Society Medal of Honor. The organization’s highest honor, this award is given to individuals whose work has fundamentally advanced the fight against cancer. Jacks is recognized for his extraordinary scientific contributions to the field of cancer biology as well as his leadership in shaping new, more effective models for collaborative, patient-centered research at MIT, non-profit Break Through Cancer, and the national level. 

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Showing 1–10 of 710 stories

Upgraded Model

Nature Biotechnology

December 18, 2026

To help mouse models of disease better resemble human genetics, the Sánchez-Rivera group has developed H2M, a computational pipeline to predict mouse genetic variants that mirror the sequence and functional effects of human variants. H2M also performs mouse-to-human and other types of variant mapping for precision genome-editing tools. Published in Nature Biotechnology, the researchers share their database, libraries, and web tool online.

Tyler Jacks Receives ACS Medal of Honor

American Cancer Society

March 6, 2026

Congratulations to Koch Institute Founding Director Tyler Jacks, who has been selected to receive the 2026 American Cancer Society Medal of Honor. The organization’s highest honor, this award is given to individuals whose work has fundamentally advanced the fight against cancer. Jacks is recognized for his extraordinary scientific contributions to the field of cancer biology as well as his leadership in shaping new, more effective models for collaborative, patient-centered research at MIT, non-profit Break Through Cancer, and the national level. 

Mini Livers, Major Potential

Newsweek

March 4, 2026

A team led by Sangeeta Bhatia has engineered injectable “mini livers” that can support failing livers and provide an alternative to transplantation. A study appearing in Cell Biomaterials shows that cells injected in mice survived at least two months and produced key liver enzymes and proteins. 

Spiky Sucess

Nature Biomedical Engineering

March 2, 2026

Immune monitoring in vaccination, infection, cancer and autoimmunity requires detection of certain antigen-specific immune cells, yet their low frequency and dispersed distribution makes finding them a challenge. A platform from the Hammond and Irvine labs cleverly exploits memory T cell functioning to concentrate target circulating immune cells in the skin for non-invasive sampling by a microneedle patch; recently published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, earlier work on this approach was supported by the Bridge Project and appears in the KI Image Awards Archive. 
 

Decoding Cancer Evolution 

MIT Biology

February 20, 2026

“We aim to decode cancer evolution and therapy resistance,” says MIT Biology’s new Assistant Professor Matthew G. Jones in a “3 Questions” Q&A. His lab combines AI, single‑cell lineage tracing, and predictive models to anticipate tumor progression, identify vulnerabilities, and guide strategies for more effective cancer treatment. 

From The Curiosity Desk

WGBH

February 19, 2026

On GBH’s The Curiosity Desk, Angela Belcher and Sangeeta Bhatia talk nanomaterial properties, light wavelengths, and ovarian cancer. Working toward better patient outcomes, they highlight the “huge window of opportunity” before precancerous lesions leave the fallopian tube and discuss their work on early detection and intervention. 

Love Lab improves drug production with AI

MIT News

February 16, 2026

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Love Lab designed an AI model for more efficient yeast-based production of protein drugs for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.Led by former postdoc and Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellow Harini Narayanan, the researchers used the Love Lab's yeast-based biomanufacturing platform to develop a large language model that optimizes genetic sequences for protein production—an unpredictable part of advancing new biologic drugs to the clinic.The study reflects Love's longstanding interest in improving both small- and industry-scale drug manufacturing processes. His perspectives as co-director of the new MIT Initiative for New Manufacturing are featured in the MIT Technology Review.

Irvine Lands on TIME100 Health 2026 List

Time Magazine

February 12, 2026

Long-time faculty member Darrell Irvine has been named to the 2026 TIME100 Health, an annual list of the 100 individuals who most influenced global health this year. Irvine is recognized for his work empowering the immune system to fight cancer, HIV, and other diseases, including therapeutic cancer vaccine approaches developed in his KI lab that have shown stunning promise in trials headed by KI startup Elicio Therapeutics. 

Sasisekharan elected to the National Academy of Engineering

MIT News

February 10, 2026

Congratulations to Ram Sasisekharan on his 2026 election to the National Academy of Engineering—one of the highest professional distinctions that can be accorded to an engineer. Sasisekharan was recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to public health and biomedical engineering, including discovering the U.S. heparin contaminant in 2008 and creating clinical antibodies for Zika, dengue, SARS-CoV-2, and other diseases.  
 

Vander Heiden and Shaw Elected as AACR Fellows

American Association for Cancer Research

February 4, 2026

KI Director Matthew Vander Heiden has been elected to the 2026 class of Fellows of the AACR Academy. Membership honors scientists whose work has had a lasting global impact on cancer research, including Vander Heiden’s work in cancer metabolism.  Alice Shaw, MD, PhD, was also elected, for her work in targeted therapies and precision oncology. A Jacks Lab alumna, she also served as the Koch Institute's inaugural Charles W. (1955) and Jennifer C. Johnson Clinical Investigator.