News

Photo of group of people standing in front of the U.S. Capitol Building

MIT Advocacy in Action at the AACR’s 2025 Hill Day

Koch Institute

May 29, 2025

MIT Koch Institute postdoc Meaghan McGeary traveled to Washington, DC to advocate for increased federal funding for cancer research as part of the annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Hill Day. Joining other early-career scientists in a mission to make more than 50 congressional visits in a single day, she shared her experiences with policymakers, emphasizing the importance of stable research funding.  

Filter by

Filter by Title/Description

Filter by Topic

Filter by Year

Showing 221–230 of 638 stories

Brush Up Your Combination Therapy

MIT News

January 26, 2023

A study appearing in Nature Nanotechnology describes how bottlebrush nanoparticles are able to co-deliver multiple cancer drugs to tumors. Working with former Charles W. (1955) and Jennifer C. Johnson Clinical Investigator Peter Ghoroghchian and others, KI member Jeremiah Johnson demonstrates how his lab’s signature technology allows researchers to adjust the ratio of drugs to maximize synergistic effects. The platform could be used to identify new combination therapies or improve effectiveness of already-approved drugs.

Farm Fresh Immunotherapy

Whitehead Institute

January 25, 2023

KI affiliate Tobi Oni is one of two Valhalla Fellows at the Whitehead Institute studying cancer and the immune system. Oni’s research focuses on how cell surface proteins and alpaca antibodies known as nanobodies can be used to disarm—and even fight back against—pancreatic cancer cells.

Bonjour, Live μ

MIT Biology

January 24, 2023

Live μ, the first instrument of its kind in the U.S., has landed in the Peterson (1957) Nanotechnology Materials Facility at the Koch Institute. The French-manufactured high-pressured freezer allows scientists to execute a cutting-edge strategy called correlative light electron microscopy (CLEM), where fluorescent light microscopy and electron microscopy images are taken of the same sample. The Live μ, along with the Peterson Facility’s growing suite of resources and workflows, is available to the MIT community.

Foretelling Lung Cancer Risk with AI

MIT News

January 20, 2023

Sybil—a new AI tool developed by KI member Regina Barzilay and Massachusetts General Hospital clinical collaborators Lecia Sequist and Florian Fintelmann—assesses a patient’s risk of lung cancer over six years by analyzing a single low-dose CT scan.

Unlike current methods, Sybil can make accurate predictions without using demographic or medical information or a radiologist’s annotation. The tool, described in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and profiled in The Washington Post, could be used to identify individuals who need additional testing and closer management and could be particularly useful given the rising incidence of lung cancer among non-smokers. MGH is launching a trial of Sybil, and researchers plan additional testing to ensure that it will maintain its accuracy across diverse populations.

Barzilay and Sequist will share project updates as part of SOLUTIONS with/in/sight: Algorithm & Views on May 4. The work is funded in part by the Bridge Project.  

Committed to Caring

MIT News

January 17, 2023

MIT’s Office of Graduate Education posthumously recognizes KI member Angelika Amon as “Committed to Caring,” citing her generous and dynamic mentorship and her enduring support of students in and beyond the classroom. Amon’s legacy is further exemplified by the Amon Young Scientist Award. She is one of 15 faculty members in the current cohort of honorees, which includes KI member Michael Birnbaum, who was profiled in December.  

It Takes All Kinases

MIT News

January 11, 2023

Michael Yaffe, together with longtime collaborators Lew Cantley and Benjamin Turk, created an atlas of protein kinases—signaling molecules that regulate nearly all cellular functions. This resource, described in Nature, could accelerate the pursuit of new cancer drugs and help physicians customize treatment to specific tumors.
 

Kronos in Collaboration

Kronos Bio

January 9, 2023

Kronos Bio, co-founded by Angela Koehler to tackle “undruggable” cancer targets, has launched a collaboration with Genentech. Genentech will leverage Kronos Bio’s drug discovery platform—including its small molecule microarray—to identify compounds that modify difficult-to-target transcription factors, with the aim of developing more effective treatments for cancer patients.

Celebrating Together (Again)

MIT Koch Institute

January 6, 2023

In late 2022, an in-person celebration of the recipients of the Peter Karches Mentorship Prize took place for the first time in three years, bringing together multiple cohorts of winners with family members and friends of Peter Karches to recognize their contributions. The 2022 awardees were Stephanie Gaglione, Sofia Hu, Allen Jiang, and Chris Nabel.

Suono Doses First Patient

Medical Device Network

January 5, 2023

Langer/Traverso Lab startup Suono Bio has dosed its first patient with SuonoCalm, an ultrasound-based platform that enhances the delivery of nucleic acids, biologics, and other drugs that are too large or delicate to be absorbed effectively by the gastrointestinal tract. Clinical testing begins with a drug for ulcerative colitis (a known cancer risk factor) and could expand to additional diseases, including cancer.
 

Fascination of Science at the KI

MIT News

January 5, 2023

The Koch Institute is delighted to host Fascination of Science, an exhibition by renowned German portrait photographer Herlinde Koelbl. Having interviewed dozens of top scientists from around the world, Koelbl has captured the essence of their inspiration and pursuits of knowledge. View selected portraits, including those of KI members Sangeeta Bhatia, Ed Boyden, Robert Langer, and Robert Weinberg, in the Koch Institute Public Galleries through the end of January 2023. The installation was produced by the German Consulate General Boston.