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Viktor Adalsteinsson

KI alum Viktor Adalsteinsson develops liquid biopsies to detect cancer

Slice of MIT

March 6, 2024

Cancer patients who undergo surgery are often left with a frightening question: Did the surgeons get all the cancerous cells? No one wants a recurrence of disease, but additional treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy have significant side effects. That’s why Viktor Adalsteinsson PhD ’15 has been developing tools to support better-informed treatment decisions: so-called “liquid biopsies” that can detect the presence of cancer from a simple blood test.

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Introducing the 2023-2024 Convergence Scholars

MIT Koch Institute

November 13, 2023

The Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine and the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine are pleased to announce the 2023-2024 class of Convergence Scholars. Founded in 2017, the Convergence Scholars Program (CSP) is designed to enhance the career development of aspiring independent scientists with diverse interests across academia, industry, science communication, and STEM outreach. This year's scholars are Jonuelle Acosta (Hemann Lab), Margaret Billingsley (Hammond Lab), Asheley Chapman (Irvine Lab), Allison Greaney (Langer Lab), Yizong Hu (Anderson Lab), Vardhman Kumar (Bhatia Lab), Corey Stevens (Belcher Lab), Elen Torres (Spranger Lab), and Bocheng Wu (Koehler Lab).

10 Years of the Bridge Project

MIT Koch Institute

November 10, 2023

In large part the brainchild of the late Art Gelb, ScD ’61, the Bridge Project was launched in 2012 with a simple idea uniquely suited to Greater Boston. Designed to leverage the collective expertise of MIT and Harvard, particularly its clinical cancer centers and teaching hospitals, the program’s goal is to enable collaborative research teams combining innovative science, tools and technologies with the translational expertise of clinical oncologists to solve challenging problems in cancer.  

Transformations in Cancer Care

Washington Post Live

October 30, 2023

Although cancer mortality rates have declined overall, roughly 2 million people will be diagnosed with cancer and 600,000 Americans will die from the disease this year. Robert Weinberg talks to Washington Post Live about the state of cancer research and how technological advancements are transforming cancer detection and treatment. 

Moving the Needle on Appendiceal Cancer

MIT Koch Institute

October 27, 2023

Co-hosted by MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the workshop “New Approaches to Accelerating Biomedical Innovation: Case Study on Appendiceal Cancer” brought together stakeholders across academia, industry, patient advocacy groups, and regulatory spaces to lay a foundation for accelerating the development of new treatments for cancer of the appendix—a disease with few effective treatments and a low survival rate.

Anchors Aweigh for Immunotherapy Translation

Business Wire

October 24, 2023

An approach engineered in the Irvine and Wittrup labs to anchor powerful immune medicines at the tumor site—thus avoiding challenges of both systemic and intratumoral delivery—is headed to trials. Ankyra Therapeutics, which the researchers co-founded, announced approval of its investigational new drug application by the US FDA and clinical trial application by Health Canada for its lead agent, ANK-101. Watch or read more to learn about the original research, supported in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Hope Babette Tang (1983) Student Research Fund, the Kristin R. Pressman and Jessica J. Pourian (2013) Koch Institute Fund, the Charles S. Krakauer (1954) Fund, and a KI Quinquennial Cancer Research Fellowship.
 

How to Succeed at Failing

Freakonomics Podcast

October 18, 2023

“Was that really failure? Or was it just being an apprentice to trying to learn how to succeed?”  Robert Langer interviews with the Freakonomics podcast in their multipart series, “How to Succeed at Failing.”

Congratulations, Tigist!

Fred Hutch Cancer Center

October 17, 2023

Congratulations to White Lab postdoc Tigist Tamir on winning one of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center's 2023 Dr. Eddie Méndez Scholar Awards! The award recognizes early-career underrepresented minority scientists and scientists with disabilities.  

KI Trio elected to National Academy of Medicine

MIT News

October 10, 2023

Daniel Anderson, Darrell Irvine and Regina Barzilay have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine! Weinberg Lab alumnus and cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee, whose best-seller Emperor of All Maladies highlighted breakthroughs made by MIT’s cancer research community, was also recognized. Election to the academy is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizing outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Congratulations to all!

Circular RNA Round-Up

Nature

October 4, 2023

Nature rounds up everything you need to know about circular RNA, including advances from the Anderson Lab and its spinout Orna Therapeutics. By tying ends of RNA together, circular RNA can stick around longer than the linear RNA currently used in vaccines and other therapies.

Moungi Bawendi wins 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

MIT News

October 4, 2023

Congratulations to Moungi Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry, on winning the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry! Bawendi shares the prize with Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology for pioneering the development of quantum dots. These semiconducting nanocrystals emit exceptionally pure light and have been deployed in computer and television displays and biomedical imaging. Bawendi has collaborated with Koch Institute member Linda Griffith and former administrator W. David Lee ’69 on the Lumicell Imaging System, a low-cost single-cell imaging technology for eliminating residual cancer cells during tumor resection. Supported in its early stages of development by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, the system was pairs an injectable contrast agent with a hand-held, single-cell resolution imager to scan surgical margins for residual cancer cells. The system is now on the fast track to FDA approval, and could help eliminate the need for repeat cancer surgeries, reduce the incidence of relapse, and lower healthcare costs.