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Artifacts from a half century of cancer research

MIT Koch Institute

November 21, 2024

Throughout 2024, the Koch Institute has celebrated 50 years of MIT’s cancer research program and the individuals who have shaped its journey. In honor of this milestone anniversary year, the Koch Institute celebrated the opening of a new exhibition: Object Lessons: Celebrating 50 Years of Cancer Research at MIT in 10 Items. Object Lessons invites the public to explore significant artifacts—from one of the earliest PCR machines, developed in the lab of Nobel laureate H. Robert Horvitz, to Greta, a groundbreaking zebrafish from the lab of Professor Nancy Hopkins—in the half century of discoveries and advancements that have positioned MIT at the forefront of the fight against cancer.  

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Celebrating Unsung Research Heroes

MIT Koch Institute

May 21, 2021

The Robert A. Swanson (1969) Biotechology Center lies at the heart of Koch Institute research. Supported in large part by philanthropy, these core facilities provide state-of-the-art technical resources and trusted scientific expertise to researchers at all levels, accelerating MIT’s robust cancer science and engineering projects to have the greatest possible impact on patients and cancer research. Over the course of this series of lightning talks and culminating panel discussion, experts in bioinformatics, high throughput sciences, and microscopy joined researchers from the Bhatia, Hammond, Koehler, and Yilmaz laboratories to profile their teamwork. The three highlighted projects—tracking the effect of circadian rhythms on drug metabolism, hijacking cellular recycling systems to break down challenging cancer targets, and longitudinal monitoring of organoids—exemplify the SBC’s collaborative nature and reflect on the unique environment of the Koch Institute. 

State of the Vaccination

American Association for the Advancement of Science

May 20, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has interrupted delivery of health services for adolescents, including HPV vaccination for cancer prevention. The Koch Institute and other NCI-designated cancer centers and organizations have issued a joint statement urging the nation’s health care systems, physicians, and families to get HPV vaccination back on track.

Congratulations and Welcome

MIT Koch Institute

May 12, 2021

Over the next year, the Koch Institute will welcome three new faculty members, all of whom will be appointed as assistant professors in the Department of Biology. Kristin Knouse, who will join the KI on July 1, uses novel genetic, molecular, and cellular tools to understand how tissues sense and respond to damage. Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera arrives in early 2022 and will study genetic variation in the context of cancer using functional genomics, genome editing, single cell genomics, and mouse models. Yadira Soto-Feliciano will also join the KI in early 2022 and will study how protein complexes assemble on chromatin and how disruption of these molecular mechanisms lead to human diseases including cancer.

Hammond Named Institute Professor

MIT News

May 12, 2021

Paula Hammond has been named an Institute Professor—the highest distinction bestowed upon MIT faculty members—in honor of her pioneering work in nanotechnology, her excellence as a teacher and mentor, and her leadership on issues of equity and inclusion. When the appointment takes effect on July 1, she will be the third Institute Professor in residence in Building 76, along with Bob Langer and Phil Sharp.

Elimination Round

MIT News

May 12, 2021

Horvitz Lab researchers discovered a trigger for cell extrusion—a mechanism for eliminating unneeded cells—and suggest that the process might provide a natural defense against cancer. In a study appearing in Nature, researchers found that in the worm C. elegans many of the genes necessary for extrusion are involved in the cell division cycle. However, as extruded cells enter the cell division cycle, they are unable to replicate their DNA and consequently experience replication stress. Collaborators’ studies of mammalian cells revealed that replication stress similarly drives the extrusion of mammalian cells and that the well-known tumor suppressor protein p53 plays a role in the extrusion of cells undergoing DNA replication stress. Because cancerous and precancerous cells commonly experience replication stress, the findings indicate that extrusion may be a tumor suppression mechanism.

Soft Cell

MIT News

May 12, 2021

A team of researchers including Roger Kamm demonstrated that metastasizing cancer cells soften as they escape through a blood vessel wall and enter a new site. The study, appearing in the Journal of Biomechanics, may enable the development of new drugs that disrupt metastasis by interfering with cell softening.

Learnt to a CRISPR

MIT News

May 12, 2021

Few discoveries have accelerated biomedical research faster than CRISPR, the protein-based gene editing tool that allows scientists to precisely manipulate individual genes on a molecular level. Startup company KSQ Therapeutics, co-founded by KI members Eric Lander, David Sabatini, and Jonathan Weissman, leverages the investigators' CRISPR-based technologies to decipher the role of genes in diseases like cancer and apply these insights to therapeutic development.

KI Physician Honored

MIT Koch Institute

May 12, 2021

Congratulations to Michael Yaffe, David H. Koch Professor of Science and director of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, on his election to the Association of American Physicians. The AAP is a selective honorary medical society for physicians with outstanding credentials in basic or translational biomedical research. Yaffe, in addition to conducting research into cancer’s dysregulated signaling pathways, is a trauma surgeon and intensivist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Over the summer, he served as co-director of the acute care and ICU section of the Boston Hope Covid-19 pop-up hospital.

Redefining Endometriosis

The New York Times

May 12, 2021

The New York Times profiled Linda Griffith's efforts to pivot the conversation around endometriosis from "a women's issue" to "an MIT issue." Founder of the first lab in the U.S. dedicated to endometriosis and a recently elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Griffith has developed uterine organoid models to parse the genetic and molecular networks at play in the poorly understood disease.

Location, Location, Location

Massachusetts General Hospital

April 14, 2021

Matthew Vander Heiden and Bridge Project collaborators demonstrate in a Nature Cancer paper that metabolic differences between primary and metastatic brain tumors may serve as therapeutic targets. The research team showed that breast cancer metastases in the brain require fatty acid synthase expression because they must make their own fats, as compared to breast cancer tumors in the breast, where fats are abundant and accessible. Therapies that inhibit fatty acid synthase in these brain metastases may be a promising strategy for combatting these fatal and drug resistant tumors. This work was also supported in part by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, and the Ludwig Center at MIT.