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Moderna's mRNA vaccines take on cancer

New York Times

August 19, 2026

Moderna, co-founded by Bob Langer, announced that late-stage trials showed its mRNA cancer vaccine reduced the ​risk of melanoma recurrence and spread when used in conjunction with an immunotherapy called pembrolizumab—the first positive results for mRNA cancer vaccines and for combination therapies with pembrolizumab. Moderna is testing similar approaches against lung, breast, and pancreatic cancers with its partners.

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A potential new target for lung cancer interception

MIT News

August 14, 2026

As lung cancer increasingly affects people who have never smoked, researchers are working to understand what drives the disease and how it might be prevented. In a study published in Science Advances, the Bhatia and Jacks labs identified caspase-1 as a potential target for lung cancer interception, an approach that aims to stop cancer before it progresses. 

This research was supported by Frontier, Upstage Lung Cancer, the Marble Center for Nanomedicine, and the Ludwig Center at MIT.

Heel stick for cancer risk 

MIT Koch Institute

August 12, 2026

Nearly all newborns in the US are routinely screened via tiny blood draw, or ‘heel stick,’ for a set of health conditions, yet such broad efforts to identify babies at risk for early-onset cancers has not been evaluated. Published in Nature Communications, a Bridge Project study from Koch Institute investigator David Housman and collaborators helps address this gap.  

Researchers identify driver of metastasis in colorectal cancers

Bendta Schroeder, MIT Koch Institute

August 6, 2026

Yilmaz Lab researchers and KI Alum Norihiro Goto discovered that GATA6, a master regulator of lineage plasticity, could be key to identifying and treating aggressive colorectal cancers. A study appearing in Cell Stem Cell showed that as cells lose GATA6, they evolve into more stem cell-like states in which they can spread to the liver and establish new tumors.The study was funded in part by the MIT Stem Cell Initiative via Fondation MIT and the Bridge Project.

From tumors to tools

MIT News

August 5, 2026

An international team led by researchers at the Koch Institute, the Broad Institute, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the National Cancer Institute has created nearly 700 well-documented patient-derived cancer models representing 25 cancer types.

Senior author Jesse Boehm, co-first author Mushriq Al-Jazrawe and hundreds of colleagues contributed to what amounted to the decade-long Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI), which created and characterized these organoid and other next-generation cell models that could help researchers identify new drug targets and test potential treatments for a broader range of cancers.

Elicio enters a new phase

Lustgarten Foundation

July 22, 2026

Elicio will begin a Phase I trial testing the efficacy of combining their KRAS-targeted  cancer vaccine with chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer. Elicio's cancer vaccine is based on  approach originally developed in the laboratory of former Koch Institute faculty member Darrell Irvine, where "amphiphile" particles hitchhike on albumin molecules in the bloodstream to the lymph nodes, where they teach the immune system to fight cancer. 

The new trial, with support from the Lustgarten Foundation and Break Through Cancer, builds on robust results from an earlier Phase 1 trial testing the vaccine following surgery and chemotherapy, and will evaluate whether stronger results can be obtained when the vaccine is administered together with a chemotherapy. Researchers will test the efficacy of combining the KRAS-targeted immunotherapy with chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer, as well as explore the biology of therapy response, characterize changes within the tumor microenvironment, and identify biomarkers that could guide future clinical trials. 

Douglas Lauffenburger named Institute Professor

MIT News

July 20, 2026

Three cheers to Douglas Lauffenburger, one of a trio of MIT faculty members named Institute Professors this year. Lauffenburger receives MIT’s highest honor for his contributions as the founding head of the Department of Biological Engineering and key roles in launching interdisciplinary programs, as well as his work developing predictive models of molecular and cellular networks.

Remembering Susumu Tonegawa 

MIT News

July 15, 2026

The Koch Institute joins the MIT community in mourning Nobel Laureate Susumu Tonegawa, an alumnus of the MIT Center for Cancer Research (our predecessor) and founding director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Driven by curiosity about fundamental questions in biology, Tonegawa made groundbreaking discoveries in immunology and neuroscience. Awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for uncovering the genetic basis of antibody diversity, he later transformed our understanding of how memories are formed, stored, and recalled.

PRMT5 inhibitors in Merkel cell carcinoma

Nature Communications Biology

July 14, 2026

A Nature Communications Biology study published by Bridge Project collaborators Jacqueline Lees (Koch InstituteI) and James DeCaprio  (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) uncovers previously unknown mechanisms underlying the sensitivity of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive neuroendocrine skin cancer, to PRMT5 inhibitors. They found that PRMT5 inhibitor sensitivity is not dependent on the activation of tumor-suppressor gene p53, as previously believed. They further showed that PRMT5 inhibition disrupts intron splicing and impairs ATR signaling with increased DNA damage, which may point the way to improving the efficacy of PRMT5 inhibitors and help clinicians identify patients who are more likely to respond to these therapies.

Equipped for the future

Massachusetts LIfe Sciences Center

July 9, 2026

Massachusett’s Healey-Driscoll Administration announced more than $19.7 million in funding supporting the life sciences for 23 projects that will expand cutting-edge research infrastructure, accelerate artificial intelligence and data science, advance next-generation therapeutic delivery technologies, and help move promising discoveries closer to patients. The KI’s Integrated Tissue Processing and Spatial Imaging Core Facility will receive a research equipment grant, which will support a shared, high-throughput auto-stainer.  

Sangeeta Bhatia, then and now

The Scientist

July 6, 2026

In celebration of their 40th anniversary, The Scientist catches up with Sangeeta Bhatia since her profiles in 2006 and  2013, giving her an opportunity to reflect on her journey in pioneering liver research, developing advanced diagnostics, and launching multiple companies. She emphasizes that she never expected her career to take this path: “We're all so focused on being strategic and planning our journey, and the truth of the matter is that the field I ended up in didn't exist on the day I graduated. The best things that happen are surprises.”