News

An illustration of black cats sitting on white RNA strands against a dark blue background

Mapped to purrfection

MIT News

November 4, 2025

Burge Lab researchers have created KATMAP, a framework for predicting gene splicing. While DNA is the same across most cells in an organism, gene splicing allows RNA to be remixed to support cells specialized for different tissues. Described in Nature Biotechnology, KATMAP can be used to investigate how splicing mutations give rise to diseases such as cancer and how nucleic acid therapies influence splicing. 

Filter by

Filter by Title/Description

Filter by Topic

Filter by Year

Showing 11–20 of 683 stories

Can we demystify endometriosis?

WNYC Studios

November 3, 2025

On NPR’s Science Fridays, Linda Griffith highlights challenges in endometriosis—from ‘squeamishness’ around basic conversations to difficulties in clinical diagnosis—and promising research innovations in modeling and treatment. Her own patient-derived models are advancing this work, including collaborative efforts via the MIT Stem Cell Initiative to understand biological structures that may help maintain healthy endometrium and its stem-like properties.

Ovarian Immunotherapy Hits the Gas

MIT News

October 31, 2025

Although immunotherapy has been a game-changer for several cancers, its success in ovarian and other tumors remains quite limited. New nanoparticles developed through a Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine collaboration between the Hammond and former Irvine labs elicit a better response by delivering an immune-stimulating molecule called IL-12 directly to ovarian tumors. In a Nature Materials study, the team paired the nanoparticles with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies in a combination that eliminated metastatic tumors in more than 80 percent of mice, even in highly resistant models.  The treatment also established immune memory, enabling mice to clear cancer cells when reintroduced several months later. Pursuing translational development, the researchers are working to launch a new company.

Pumped to Beat Drug Resistance

Nature Communications

October 20, 2025

Anthracyclines are powerful chemotherapy drugs, but cancer cells can resist them by building efflux pumps—proteins that act like molecular “bouncers,” kicking drugs out of the cell. The Hemann, Yilmaz and Lippard labs have designed a “dual warhead” that retains anthracyclines’ cancer-killing power while circumventing efflux by adding features of platinum-based chemotherapies. A Nature Communications study demonstrates that the drug conjugate extended survival in mouse models of metastatic colon cancer and suggests new opportunities to combat chemoresistance and augment existing chemotherapeutics. This work was partly funded by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research Fund and the Michael (1957) and Inara Erdei Fund.

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.  

Engineering better care in the Traverso Lab

MIT Technology Review

October 13, 2025

MIT Technology Review shines a spotlight on the cutting-edge work taking place in Giovanni Traverso’s lab. From ingestible biosensor pills to capsules that can replace insulin shots, Traverso is focused on improving patients’ lives.   “At the core of what we do is really thinking about the patient, the person, and how we can help make their life better,” Traverso says.  

Dial M for Modulation

MIT News

October 13, 2025

The Galloway Lab has developed DIAL, a platform that lets researchers fine-tune the expression of synthetic genes even after they have been delivered to the target cells. The research, published in Nature Biotechnology, allows for uniform, stable control of gene expression and could be used to precisely tailor gene therapies to individual patients or cell populations.

The Magic of Engineering

ACS Nanomedicine

October 8, 2025

Robert Langer chats with ACS Nanomedicine about his “imperative to push medicine into new frontiers,” touching on moments when the translation of lab discoveries into technological innovations is accelerated. He also shares a few tricks of the trade for maintaining a successful lab—and reveals that he may have a few literal tricks up his sleeve (see 21:50).  

Yes I can, can, CAN

Science Translational Medicine

October 8, 2025

Researchers from the White and Cima Labs and the Robert A. Swanson (1969) Biotechnology Center demonstrate in patients that serial sampling of glioblastoma is possible. The approach, described in a Science Translational Medicine paper offers an alternative to MRI for treatment response evaluation and a new way to gain insight into tumor progression and therapeutic opportunities.  

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.