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Tardi-grade A science

MIT News

February 26, 2025

About 60 percent of cancer patients in the U.S. receive radiation therapy, which can have severe side effects. In a study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team led by Giovanni Traverso discovered that a protein from tardigrades (microscopic "water bears") can protect human cells from radiation damage, minimizing treatment side effects.

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Inside Outreach

American Society for Cell Biology

August 2, 2021

KI outreach manager Erika Reinfeld sat down with KI postdoc and American Society for Cell Biology representative Tim Fessenden to discuss science outreach before and after Covid. Reflecting on the nature of online vs. in-person events, tours, and presentations, the conversation examined the pandemic’s impact on access, equity, and opportunity, as well as strategies for connecting STEM topics to people’s everyday experiences.
 

One Step at a Time

American Association for Cancer Research

July 27, 2021

Cancer metabolism pioneer Matthew Vander Heiden didn't set out to be a pioneer; he just wanted to understand how mitochondria worked. However, one question led to another and he soon found himself revisiting fundamental questions about cell metabolism and applying his discoveries to cancer biology. Now, as director of the Koch Institute, Vander Heiden continues to catalyze discoveries and interactions across the cancer research field.

Suono Bio Makes Waves

MIT News

July 27, 2021

KI startup Suono Bio is teaching an old technology new tricks. Beginning with treatment for ulcerative colitis, the team is using ultrasound waves to enhance drug delivery and promote localized absorption into the GI tract. Such an approach could one day make cancer therapy more precise and effective.

Staking Out Cancer

MIT News

July 23, 2021

Bhatia Lab engineers, in collaboration with biologists in the Gertler Lab, have created diagnostic nanoparticles that detect cancer cells and pinpoint their location anywhere in the body. A study published in Nature Materials tracked the progression and spread of metastatic colon cancer in mouse models before and after chemotherapy, suggesting that the platform could be used to diagnose and monitor cancer, as well as evaluate treatment response. The team is optimistic about the new platform's eventual use as a routine screening tool in annual health exams.

This project was supported in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine and a KI Quinquennial Cancer Research Fellowship, with earlier work supported by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program.

Moles Meet Machine Learning

Technology Review

July 22, 2021

KI member Regina Barzilay continues her work to improve early cancer detection through machine learning algorithms. In an article published in Science Translational Medicine, Barzilay and colleagues describe the training and use of a deep convolutional neural network to compare markings on patients' skin to identify signs of pre-cancerous lesions.

mRNA Vaccines Beyond Covid

National Geographic

July 21, 2021

Covid-19 has brought substantial attention to the use of messenger RNA, or mRNA, as a tool for training the body to fight disease. KI member Daniel Anderson speaks with National Geographic about the application of this technology in cancer therapy—a longstanding research interest in his lab. His message? Therapeutic mRNA vaccines delivered via nanoparticles could offer great flexibility in helping the immune system identify and attack tumor cells across a wide range of cancer types.

Promoter Sequence

MIT Koch Institute

July 1, 2021

Congratulations to Scott Manalis, Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering and Associate Department Head Biological Engineering, who has been appointed a David H. Koch Professor of Engineering. Manalis is the second person to hold the David H. Koch (1962) Inaugural Chair in Engineering; he succeeds Paula Hammond, who was recently named an Institute Professor, the highest honor bestowed on MIT faculty members. Though the timing is coincidental, it is fitting that the transition of this chair—created for the dedication of the Koch Institute in 2011—should take place during our anniversary year.

The KI is also pleased to congratulate several more faculty members on their promotions and new appointments: Alex Shalek has been granted tenure in the Department of Chemistry. Michael Birnbaum has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Biological Engineering and Bradley Pentelute to full professor in the Department of Chemistry. In addition to his recent promotion to full professor, Matthew Vander Heiden has been appointed as the Lester Wolfe (1919) Professor of Molecular Biology.

Parsing Paraffin-Embedded Tissue Samples

Cancer Research

July 1, 2021

By combining bench and computational methods, the White Lab has created powerful techniques for analyzing cell signaling processes and identifying potential cancer therapy targets and drug combinations. Yet these techniques often require more tissue than is available in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples, one of the most widely available forms of preserved biopsy and tumor tissue. However, the researchers have developed an approach, published in Cancer Research, that collects data from FFPE samples with the same sensitivity as from less common, but larger frozen samples. With Mayo Clinic collaborators, the team was also able to identify patient-specific, cancer-driving signaling molecules in FFPE samples of breast and lung tumors. These findings suggest that this method can provide direct translational insight from analysis of FFPE specimens, and open huge repositories of patient samples to further study.

A Genetic Enhancer and a Scholar

MIT News

June 30, 2021

KI member Anders Hansen joins the 2021 class of the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research. This early-stage career award honors and promotes cutting-edge research into the development, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. Hansen’s work will explore the interactions between genetic elements known as enhancers and their target genes, focusing on c-Myc, a gene commonly overexpressed in cancer.

KI Welcomes New Executive Director

MIT Koch Institute

June 28, 2021

Jane Wilkinson is the new Executive Director of the Koch Institute. Building on her 20+ years of experience in scientific operations and alliance management at the Broad Institute, Cereon Genomics/Monsanto, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Genome Center, Wilkinson will oversee the KI's overall outreach program, helping to build and manage collaborative interactions between the KI and academic, industry, and clinical institutions within and outside of MIT. She looks forward to meeting and working with the Koch Institute's talented community of researchers, collaborators, administrators, and friends.