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Headshot of Richard Hynes, sitting in front of a bookcase

Remembering Richard Hynes

MIT Koch Institute

January 23, 2026

With great sadness, the Koch Institute marks the passing of Richard O. Hynes PhD ’71, whose discoveries reshaped modern understandings of how cells interact with each other and their environment, who died January 6, 2026 at age 81.

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Showing 1–10 of 706 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.

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. 
 

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. 

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.  

Ultrasound Goes Ultra Accessible 

MIT News

February 2, 2026

A portable, smartphone-sized 3D ultrasound sensor developed in the lab of KI alum Canan Dagdeviren could improve early breast cancer detection for high‑risk individuals. Clinical trials are evaluating its ability to detect tumors earlier than yearly mammograms in high-risk patients, and MIT entrepreneurship programs are helping a startup advance commercialization of this low-cost, miniaturized technology.

Gensaic on target: AI-powered delivery for smarter medicine

MIT News

January 30, 2026

Building on insights from her work as a graduate student adapting the Belcher Lab’s signature bacteriophage delivery platform, alum Uganda Tsedev has co‑launched Gensaic. The company’s AI‑powered platform helps guide design of precision protein “shuttles” that deliver therapeutic molecules to target tissues. This tissue‑selective approach could transform treatments for metabolic and other diseases while reducing side effects.

Crystal Blue Sensation

Science Translational Medicine

January 28, 2026

By developing slow release, crystal forms of drugs that block the CSF1R immune pathway and encapsulating them with insulin producing cells in alginate spheres, the Anderson/Langer group can reduce immune reactions that lead to biomedical implant failure and ensure stable, long-term glycemic control in models of diabetes. Early versions of this technology appear in the KI Image Awards Archive; a recent Science Translational Medicine study highlights contexts where the approach could be successful.  

Metabolic mixes modulate metastatic sites

Mass General Brigham

January 26, 2026

A Nature study from Matt Vander Heiden’s laboratory, in collaboration with MGB’s Rakesh Jain and Harvard’s George Church helps illuminate the factors determining where cancers can metastasize. In mice, the researchers quantified levels of metabolites in multiple tissues, investigating their relation to breast cancer cells’ ability to grow in different organs. They found a complex interplay of multiple nutrients in the local environment defines the sites of breast cancer metastases.This work was supported in part by The Bridge Project.