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 271–280 of 631 stories

Pinpointing Solutions for Cancer Detection

MIT Spectrum

May 26, 2022

Ovarian cancer is notoriously hard to detect. Lacking in reliable diagnostic or screening techniques and opaque in its biological origins, it is difficult to find or target until it has progressed to dangerously late stages. The Hammond and Irvine Labs, in conjunction with their clinical collaborators and a cohort of patients, are determined to change this.

Drawing on years of expertise in engineering, immunology, and materials chemistry, and on recent funding from the Bridge Project, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers has built a polymer microneedle patch that samples interstitial fluid in the body to screen for microRNAs from cancer cells. The patch, which also has applications for autoimmune diseases, could one day become the first noninvasive screening tool for ovarian cancer.

Ultimate Frisbee

Nature Materials

May 23, 2022

Substantial delivery challenges persist for agents that engage the STING pathway, a highly desirable cancer immunotherapy target. However, new tumor-penetrating lipid nanodiscs developed by the Irvine Lab outperformed previously designed nanoparticles in delivering STING-activating agents to induce tumor rejection and support immune memory against reintroduced tumor cells. This work was published in Nature Materials and supported in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine.

Studying Cancer Across Continents

MIT News

May 19, 2022

New MIT alum and aspiring MD/PhD student Daniel Zhang is headed to the Netherlands on a Fulbright scholarship. His planned project, developing an organoid co-culture system to study malignant rhabdoid tumors and screen for therapeutic vulnerabilities, builds on his longtime work in the Jacks Lab developing genetic knockout models for colorectal cancer.

Becoming Bob Langer

Becoming X

May 17, 2022

A new installment of the Bear Grylls Becoming X series features Bob Langer, who shares how he ended up in the chemical engineering field, how he eventually achieved his research goals, and how he’s put them to work in service of millions of people worldwide.
 

With an AI Towards the Clinic

MIT News

May 17, 2022

Regina Barzilay co-chaired the AI Cures conference for physicians and researchers interested in bringing artificial intelligence tools into the clinic. Fellow KI members Susan Hockfield and Phillip Sharp and Bridge Project collaborator Lecia Sequest were among those who attended the event, which was co-hosted by MIT and Mass General Brigham.
 

A Case for Commendation

MIT News

May 13, 2022

Congratulations to our newest extramural faculty member, biologist Lindsay Case, on being named a Searle Scholar. This annual award honors 15 outstanding U.S. assistant professors who have high potential for ongoing innovative research contributions in medicine, chemistry, or the biological sciences. Case studies the molecular mechanisms that lead to aberrant cell migration and signaling during cancer metastasis.  

What's Next for RNA Vaccines?

MIT News

May 13, 2022

KI member Dan Anderson recently co-authored a review in Nature Biotechnology on mRNA therapies. He sat down with MIT News to discuss the history and lessons learned from the development of mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 as well as future directions for the field.
 

Thrown for a Loop

National Science Foundation

May 10, 2022

Human genomes are folded into loops that control important processes, such as gene expression and DNA repair, and may lead to cancer when misfolded. The Hansen Lab visualized loop formation—for the first time—and discovered that loops are more rare and short-lived than previously thought. The study, published in Science, illuminates the need for new models of how the genome’s 3D structure regulates cellular processes.

Spring Cleaning

MIT News

May 10, 2022

Manalis Lab researchers have discovered that before cells divide, they take out the molecular trash. In a study appearing in eLife and funded by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, the team detected a drop in the dry mass of cancer cells using a technique deploying the Manalis Lab’s signature suspended microchannel resonator. Further experimentation revealed an uptick in lysosomal exocytosis, a process where lysosomes—cell organelles that process cellular waste—jettison their contents. Because exocytosis plays a role in the development of resistance to some chemotherapies, the findings could inform new strategies for making cancer cells more susceptible to treatment.

New Partnerships for the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine

MIT Koch Institute

May 6, 2022

The Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine—housed within the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT—announces the launch of an affiliate program that will fuel scientific collaborations between academic and industry members and enable breakthrough innovations in all areas impacted by nanomedicine, from drug delivery to gene editing, biomedical imaging, and diagnostics. Inaugural members of this program are Alloy Therapeutics, Danaher Corporation, FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation, and Sanofi.