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Tailor-made genes

MIT News

April 30, 2025

Katie Galloway and her team developed synthetic gene circuits that enable more precise control of gene therapy. Their research, published in Cell Systems, could lead to new treatments for fragile X syndrome and other diseases caused by mutations in a single gene, ensuring more safe and effective therapeutic outcomes.

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Showing 1–10 of 624 stories

Tailor-made genes

MIT News

April 30, 2025

Katie Galloway and her team developed synthetic gene circuits that enable more precise control of gene therapy. Their research, published in Cell Systems, could lead to new treatments for fragile X syndrome and other diseases caused by mutations in a single gene, ensuring more safe and effective therapeutic outcomes.

Resistance mapping yields novel drug combination

Cell Systems

April 30, 2025

A new Cell Systems paper from the White lab identified mechanisms that enable resistance to cancer therapies, offering new opportunities to intervene for better patient outcomes. Mapping cell-wide signaling networks remodeled by therapy in unprecedented depth, the study reveals new insights into cancer cell plasticity and demonstrates a new drug combination repurposing a leukemia drug against melanoma. This work was supported in part by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine and a graduate fellowship from the Ludwig Center at MIT.

Brainstorming treatments for gliobastoma

The Tech

April 28, 2025

At the inaugural Glioblastoma Tumor Microenvironment Symposium on March 27, led by Koch Institute faculty member Forest White and Franziska Michor of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, national leaders in glioblastoma research explored strategies for advancing models, therapies, and collaboration to accelerate progress against the disease.

Regina Barzilay receives IEEE Medal

IBM

April 25, 2025

Regina Barzilay has received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Frances E. Allen Medal for her groundbreaking work applying machine learning to medicine. Honored alongside Miklós Ajtai, Barzilay was recognized for using unexpected methods to advance computer science and for transforming how AI is used in clinical and scientific settings.

Shaking up the STATus quo

STAT News

April 23, 2025

STAT has named Nancy Hopkins to the 2025 STATUS List, recognizing her for both her innovative work using zebrafish as a cancer model and tireless advocacy for gender equality in science. While helping to make science a more viable career for women, Hopkins also contributed groundbreaking research in genetics and molecular biology.

Making de-grade

KI News

April 17, 2025

CDK9 and MYC are protein targets for many cancers, but developing therapies has proved quite challenging. A Koehler lab study published in Cell Chemical Biology demonstrates a promising approach for controlling MYC via CDK9. The group developed a CDK9 PROTAC (proteolysis targeting chimera), a molecule that can be used to degrade, or break up, a specific protein and showed it overcomes a key paradox and potentially offers a broadly useful CDK9 strategy.

Anders Sejr Hansen wins Edgerton Award

MIT News

April 16, 2025

Congratulations to Anders Sejr Hansen on winning the Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award for exceptional distinction in teaching, research and service at MIT. The award recognizes Hansen’s remarkable productivity and passion for mentorship and career development for members of his laboratory.

Mapping cancer's ecosystem

MIT News

April 7, 2025

By treating diseased tissue as an ecosystem, Alex Shalek and team codeveloped MESA, a tool that reveals hidden interactions between cancer and immune cells. Their research, published in Nature Genetics,  shows that when applied to a diverse range of cancer tissue types, including colorectal and liver cancer, MESA uncovered critical hotspots of cellular activity, offering new insights into disease progression.

Cancer nanotech built to scale

MIT News

April 3, 2025

Paula Hammond and her team have developed a scalable method to mass-produce polymer-coated nanoparticles via layer-by-layer assembly. Their research, published in Advanced Functional Materials, shows that these nanoparticles target tumors directly—reducing chemotherapy side effects—and can now be produced more rapidly, advancing their potential for human clinical use.  

Cellular sleuths decode T cell targets

The Scientist

April 1, 2025

Immunotherapy changed the landscape of cancer treatment by equipping T cells to fight tumors, but even when these therapies are effective, their exact workings can be a mystery. The Scientist recently highlighted Michael Birnbaum’s Cancer Grand Challenges team, which leverages artificial intelligence and structural biology to decode T cell receptor recognition. The team, which includes Brandon DeKosky and Regina Barzilay, aims to enhance immunotherapy precision and broaden its potential for more effective cancer treatments.