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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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Showing 231–240 of 656 stories

Sensor-y Details

Harvard Business School

February 22, 2023

Greg Ekchian, KI alum and Stratagen Bio co-founder, talks to Harvard Business School about his device that measures oxygen levels in tumors. The first postdoc to receive a Blavatnik Fellowship, Ekchian combines his passions for science and entrepreneurship as he transforms the sensor that he developed in the Cima Lab into a commercially available tool to improve cancer treatment.   

Safe Haven for Vaccine Antigens

MIT Koch Institute

February 17, 2023

The Irvine Lab found that order to produce an effective immune response, vaccines must deliver antigens to structures, called follicles, inside lymph nodes. In a study appearing in Science, the researchers demonstrated that antigens not rapidly directed to the follicles were destroyed by proteases. The lab’s follicle-targeting, nanoparticle-based HIV vaccine elicited better antibody responses than traditional vaccines.

The NAEs Have It

MIT News

February 14, 2023

Cheers to Regina Barzilay and Roger Kamm, who are among the newest members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)! NAE election recognizes outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education. Barzilay develops machine learning models that understand structures in text, molecules, and medical images, while Kamm is being honored for advancing understandings of mechanics in biology and medicine, and leadership in biomechanics.

A Holistic View of Cancer Research

MIT News

February 9, 2023

Along the way to becoming a physician-scientist, Spranger Lab alum Julian Zulueta is exploring cancer research and its impacts on individual lives. He believes that biomedical research is best framed through questions that center people’s experiences: “How do we think about their overall health, not just in treating the cancer, but also improving quality of life?”

Checking In(hibitors)

MIT News

February 2, 2023

Checkpoint inhibitors are effective against some types of cancers, working by stimulating exhausted T cells to attack tumors once again. But for lung cancer, this type of immunotherapy has shown mixed results. In a study of mice, the Spranger Lab traced the immune response to lung cancer back to the environment created by microbiota that naturally inhabit the lungs.

Ideally, “killer” T cells are activated in lymph nodes, where they interact with dendritic cells bearing tumor-derived antigens. The team found that while this encounter still took place in lymph nodes near the lungs, the outcome was different than in lymph nodes elsewhere in the body. Regulatory T cells—called into action by interferon gamma produced in response to commensal microbes in the lungs—prevented dendritic cells from activating killer T cells. The study, appearing in Immunity, was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research Fund.
 

Making His Biomark

Biomarker

February 1, 2023

Nobel laureate and landmark entrepreneur Phil Sharp recalls his roots as a rural farmer and basketball aspirant in a recent Biomarker feature, and reflects on the people who helped him forge a career in science. Sharp recounts the importance of mentoring, risk-taking, and forming expanded social networks for people like himself, who come from backgrounds where educational and professional opportunities in the field are unknown—and highlights exciting new science that keeps him up at night!
 

Protein Shake Up

MIT Spectrum

February 1, 2023

KI member and Biology department head Amy Keating designs protein-protein interactions to thwart disease. Thanks to advances in DNA sequencing and computational tools, her lab's work has evolved over the years to include synthesis of proteins not found in nature—but with potential to block many diseases including cancer. She is optimistic about the use of artificial intelligence and other tools in helping her team make predictions about their invented proteins and build new structures from smaller ones.

Beyond Prostate Cancer

MIT Koch Institute

January 31, 2023

The Yaffe Lab has discovered a mitotic mechanism that causes the combination of abiraterone, a standard treatment for prostate cancer, and Plk1-1 inhibitors to be more effective against prostate cancer than either drug alone. In a study appearing in Cancer Research and supported in part by the Bridge Project, they also found that the combination of abiraterone and the specific Plk1 inhibitor onvansertib was effective against a variety of other cancers beyond prostate cancer, including some types of pancreatic and ovarian cancers and acute myeloid leukemia.

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.