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Remembering David Baltimore

MIT Koch Institute

September 8, 2025

With sadness, the Koch Institute marks the passing of Professor David Baltimore. A founding faculty member and formative influence behind the MIT Center for Cancer Research, he was not only a ground-breaking researcher but also a compelling and thoughtful voice for science.      His discovery of reverse transcriptase changed the prevailing scientific dogma, earned him a 1975 Nobel Prize, and directly enables work in life sciences and biomedical laboratories everywhere. His decades-long advocacy work impacted national policy debates on topics such as recombinant DNA research, the AIDS epidemic, and genome editing.    

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FDA approves bladder cancer drug delivery device

MIT News

September 15, 2025

The FDA approved Johnson & Johnson's INLEXZO™ (gemcitabine intravesical system), a bladder cancer treatment system that originated in the lab of Michael Cima. Developed in the thesis work of KI alum Heejin Lee as well as at KI spinout TARIS Biomedical, the pretzel-shaped device is made of a special alloy with "shape memory," which folds in the bladder after insertion, delivering drugs over slowly over three weeks, to be repeated at the physician's discretion.  This approach offers safer and more effective treatment for one of the most expensive cancers, marked by high recurrence rates. In one study, 82% of patients treated with the system showed no evidence of cancer, with more than half remaining cancer-free nine months later. 

PanTher Launches Phase 1b Trial

BioSpace

September 8, 2025

PanTher Therapeutics, a spinout from the Edelman and Langer Labs, has initiated a Phase 1b trial of its absorbable, high-dose chemotherapy patch for pancreatic cancer. The thin-film formulation is designed to target tumors locally while limiting systemic side effects. Early work on the film was supported by the Bridge Project.

Get a Grip

MIT News

September 8, 2025

Attaching to bendable, bumpy, uneven, or otherwise complex surfaces can be a critical challenge for drug delivery, medical implants, and other fields. Drawing KI Image Awards-winning inspiration from fishes including remora and gourami, Traverso lab members Troy Ziliang Kang, Ben Muller, and colleagues have developed a mechanical adhesive system that could be used for delivering medicines in the gastrointestinal tract or aquatic monitoring.

Putting liver cells on the clock

Science Advances

September 8, 2025

The Bhatia Lab developed a platform where human-derived liver cells mimic in vitro the daily, cyclical variations seen in the body. The system, described in Science Advances, can be used to study the effects of circadian rhythms on drug metabolism, as well as the timing and size of immune responses to liver infections.

Machine learning helps nanoparticles make the grade

MIT News

September 8, 2025

The Traverso Lab developed a system that uses machine learning to accelerate the design of more efficient lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for delivery of RNA therapies. In a Nature Nanoparticles study, the researchers used the platform to identify effective LNP formulations for various cell types, including cells derived from colorectal cancer.     This research was funded in part by the GO Nano Marble Center at the Koch Institute.            

Alissandra Hillis Wins 2025 Regeneron Prize

Regeneron

September 8, 2025

Congratulations to Vander Heiden Lab postdoc Alissandra Hillis on winning a 2025 Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation (formerly the Westinghouse Prize).  In addition to her work on metabolism and cancer, Hillis has proposed a new approach to investigating endometriosis, a prevalent but understudied gynecological disorder with significant medical consequences.

Remembering David Baltimore

MIT Koch Institute

September 8, 2025

With sadness, the Koch Institute marks the passing of Professor David Baltimore. A founding faculty member and formative influence behind the MIT Center for Cancer Research, he was not only a ground-breaking researcher but also a compelling and thoughtful voice for science.      His discovery of reverse transcriptase changed the prevailing scientific dogma, earned him a 1975 Nobel Prize, and directly enables work in life sciences and biomedical laboratories everywhere. His decades-long advocacy work impacted national policy debates on topics such as recombinant DNA research, the AIDS epidemic, and genome editing.    

Turning a Toxin Into a Tool

Phys.org

September 8, 2025

A team of MIT and Harvard researchers developed a novel method to enhance genome editing precision. In a PNAS study co-led by Ron Raines, Koch Institute member and professor of chemistry at MIT, and Amit Choudhary, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, used an anthrax-derived component to deliver anti-CRISPR proteins to effectively reduces off-target Cas9 activity and boost genome-editing specificity up to 40%.

Alexandria Jefferson Wins HHMI Gilliam Fellowship

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

September 8, 2025

Congratulations to Alexandria Jefferson, advised by Tyler Jacks and Koch Institute affiliated fellow and Whitehead Fellow Tobiloba Oni, on being named to the 2025 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellows and Advisors cohort! The program provides funding, mentorship, and leadership training to graduate students and their advisors, fostering the next generation of diverse scientific leaders.

Making the list for AI

Time Magazine

September 8, 2025

Regina Barzilay—recently named to the TIME100 list for her work on machine learning AI models to predict disease—shares insights into the present and future of AI and medicine. At the MIT Sloan School's Ideas Made to Matter blog, Barzilay explains three ways AI is currently empowering clinicians, from speeding up the mundane task of note taking to assisting with the complexities of reading images and providing tailored patient guidance. In Nature Biotechnology, Barzilay and her co-authors outline strategies for developing AI models that are capable of opening up vast classes of so-called "undruggable" targets for the discovery of new cancer therapies.