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Black and white photo of a bearded man in very 70s apparel standing in front of a banner with "David Baltimore" and the mirror image text'

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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Gut Reaction: Cysteine Supports Gut Healing

MIT News

October 20, 2025

A new Yilmaz lab study published in Nature suggests a diet rich in the amino acid cysteine may promote regeneration of the intestinal lining, turning on an immune signaling pathway that helps stem cells regrow intestinal tissue. The research offers insights into normal tissue biology and new ways to help heal tissue damage from radiation or chemotherapy treatment.

This work was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, the Bridge Project, and the MIT Stem Cell Initiative.  

A Better, Faster, Cheaper CAR

MIT News

October 8, 2025

The Chen Lab is developing CAR NK-cells, a cancer immunotherapy approach already in clinical trials that offers notable benefits over approved CAR T-cell treatments. Their newly published study, which appears in Nature Communications, identifies genetic modifications that can make CAR NK-cells more effective, less prone to rejection or side effects, and simpler to produce.  The streamlined, one-step engineering innovation could enable development of off-the-shelf therapies that can be given to patients at diagnosis, several weeks sooner than traditionally engineered CAR NK- or CAR T-cells. The Chen lab and their clinical collaborators hope to run a patient trial of this new approach.

This research was funded in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund and the Elisa Rah (2004, 2006) Memorial Fund

Out of This World: Breast Cancer Detection Goes to Space 

Good Good Good News

October 8, 2025

Cima Lab alum Canan Dagdeviren launched a breast-cancer–detecting bra into space aboard Blue Origin's all-female crew in April 2025. This wearable ultrasound patch enables early detection of breast cancer. In microgravity, “10 years of tumor growth can occur in 10 days,” allowing scientists to fast-track breakthroughs in early detection back on Earth.  

Sanghyun Park Selected as 2025 Collegiate Inventors Competition Finalist

National Inventors Hall of Fame

September 29, 2025

Congratulations to Traverso Lab PhD student Sanghyun Park on being selected as a finalist in the 2025 Collegiate Inventors Competition! This competition is organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame. 

Sanghyun was nominated for his project Self-Aggregating Long-Acting Injectable Microcrystals (SLIM) —a formulation designed to enable long-lasting injectable therapies by forming drug microcrystals that self-aggregate after injection. This innovative work was also recognized with a 2024 KI Image Award.

Watch the video of his research      

Biogen Expansion Signals Optimism for Kendall Square

MIT News

September 18, 2025

Biogen, co-founded in 1978 by the Koch Institute's Phillip Sharp and Harvard's Wally Gilbert, broke ground on its new Kendall Square headquarters in September. The 580,000-square-foot complex, expected to open in 2028, reflects optimism for Cambridge’s future as a global biotech hub and a continued engine for innovation.

Precision gene editing

MIT News

September 17, 2025

Robert Langer, Phillip Sharp, and research scientist Vikash Chauhan developed an engineered prime editing system, reported in Nature, that reduces unintended DNA changes by up to 60-fold. The new gene editor could make it easier to explore cell biology questions, such as how populations of cancer cells evolve, as well as develop gene therapy treatments for cancer and other diseases.

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. 

Vander Heiden goes to the State House

Massachusetts Legislature

September 11, 2025

On September 11, Koch Institute Director Matt Vander Heiden appeared before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies to represent MIT and the Koch Institute at a hearing exploring the contributions of universities to local and state economies.

Therapeutic vaccine elicits strong response

NBC Nightly News

September 10, 2025

NBC Nightly News covers robust early results from Elicio's clinical trials of its vaccine for treating pancreatic and colorectal cancer. In the Phase I trial, the vaccine generated strong anti-cancer T-cell responses in nearly 85% of patients, extending both recurrence-free and overall survival time. The vaccine builds on research carried out at the Koch Institute and funded in part by the Bridge Project.

Antibodies make better bottlebrushes

MIT News

September 9, 2025

Adapting his bottlebrush polymer drug delivery platform, Jeremiah Johnson has engineered new antibody-targeted particles that outperform existing antibody drug conjugates to deliver concentrated chemotherapy directly to cancer cells. The study, which appears in Nature Biotechnology, shows that each antibody-guided particle can carry dozens or hundreds of drug molecules tethered to polymer chains, eradicating most tumors in mouse models. This work was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program.