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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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Grant to Bhatia Lab to Advance Nanosensors to Diagnose Pediatric Pneumonia

MIT Koch Institute

August 2, 2023

Sangeeta Bhatia and her group have received a grant from Open Philanthropy to develop a non-invasive, accessible platform to diagnose pediatric pneumonia in under-resourced areas. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among children worldwide, accounting for 14% of deaths among those under age five. Although pneumonia can arise from either bacterial or viral infection, reliable methods of diagnosing young children are invasive and expensive, frequently putting timely diagnosis out of reach of patients in low- and middle-income countries. In 2022, the Bhatia Lab demonstrated that their nanosensor diagnostic could reliably and quickly measure different immune responses to viral and bacterial pneumonia in preclinical models. Bhatia and a team of researchers from MIT, Boston University, and Boston Children's Hospital will use the grant to adapt this pneumonia diagnostic for use in the doctor’s office and other points-of-care.

Wearable Ultrasound for Cancer Detection

MIT News

July 28, 2023

KI alumna and Media Lab professor Canan Dagdeviren has designed a flexible, user-friendly 3D-printed patch that could be incorporated into a bra to enable earlier detection and more frequent monitoring of patients at high risk for breast cancer. She was also named one of three inaugural prize winners by MIT Future Founders Initiative, which promotes female entrepreneurship in biotech.

Paula Hammond Appointed Vice Provost for Faculty

MIT Provost

July 28, 2023

Institute Professor Paula Hammond will begin her new role as as vice provost for faculty in December 2023. In her new role as vice provost for faculty, Hammond will focus on many aspects of professional development, community, and climate for faculty. She will advocate for faculty development and mentoring, working to complement local recruitment and retention efforts led by the schools and college.

Making Sense of Cell Fate

MIT News

July 27, 2023

In a study of ovarian and osteosarcoma cancer cells appearing July 19 in Cell Systems, Yaffe Lab researchers find that timing and dosage of DNA-damaging drugs are key whether cancer cells die or enter senescence. The study has implications for how a class of cancer drugs called MEK inhibitors are used in combination with chemotherapy.  

Kimberly Bennett Named HHMI Gilliam Fellow

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

July 27, 2023

Congratulations to KI grad student Kimberly Bennett, one of 50 new HHMI Gilliam Fellows recognized for their outstanding research and their commitment to making science more inclusive. As a Gilliam Fellow, Kimberly will be working with her advisors Paula Hammond and Joelle Straehla to improve the first generation, low-income graduate student experience at MIT.

GI Biosensors Track Inflammatory Markers

MIT News

July 26, 2023

The Traverso Lab made a wireless “pill” that tracks markers for gastrointestinal inflammation. A Nature study points to a variety of applications for the biosensor, including diagnosis and monitoring for notably inflammatory bowel disease, malnutrition, antibiotic resistance, neurodegenerative diseases, and poor response to chemotherapies and vaccines.

A new vision for ultrasound imaging

MIT News

July 25, 2023

Nicole Henning was awarded a  2023 MIT Excellence Award for her role in developing ultrasound-guided injection, a technique that can be harnessed to initiate disease for modeling purposes or administer drugs into deep tissues. Previously, delivering these to such hard-to-reach tissues inside the body required invasive surgeries that may affect the results of drug screenings or studies of disease processes. The key advancement of USGI is that it is a minimally invasive technique, combining ultrasound imaging to view the inside of the body to make precisely targeted injections into tissues, for instance into the lungs, liver, or pancreas.

Ready to Launch

Endpoints News

July 20, 2023

Congratulations to Sangeeta Bhatia on being named one of 20 women reshaping biopharma in 2023.  An Endpoints News special report highlights her standing as a serial entrepreneur, as well as her efforts to help other women in academia launch their own startups through creating the MIT Faculty Founders Initiative together with Susan Hockfield and Nancy Hopkins. “I’m really passionate now about teaching other women, academic entrepreneurs in our ecosystem, because we’ve learned that there are not enough of them,” says Bhatia.

It Takes Three to Tango

MIT News

July 17, 2023

A Molecular Cell study from the Young Lab shows that, along with DNA and protein, many transcription factors can also bind RNA. The researchers found that RNA binding keeps transcription factors near their DNA binding sites for longer, helping to fine-tune gene expression. This rethinking of how transcription factors work may lead to a better understanding of gene regulation, and may provide new targets for RNA-based therapeutics.

Angela Koehler Appointed Faculty Director of the Deshpande Center

MIT News

July 14, 2023

Angela Koehler, associate professor of biological engineering, intramural faculty member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, and an institute member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, has been named faculty director of the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, effective July 1. The MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation is an interdepartmental center that empowers MIT students and faculty to make a difference in the world by helping them bring new their innovative technologies from the lab to the marketplace in the form of breakthrough products and new companies.