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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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MIT Koch Institute Receives $6M to Intercept and Cure Deadly Cancers

MIT Koch Institute

April 11, 2022

KI researchers will receive $6 million in grants from Break Through Cancer, a foundation supporting collaborative, multi-disciplinary research teams from leading US cancer centers. The grants support projects aiming to intercept cancer at early stages and find treatments for some of the deadliest cancers, including pancreatic and ovarian cancer, and glioblastoma.

The Molecular Makings of Metastasis

Whitehead Institute

April 11, 2022

Examining breast cancer cells in various hybrid states across the epithelial-mesenchymal spectrum, the Weinberg Lab is screening for genes and molecules that influence a cell's plasticity. Their findings, published in Nature Cell Biology, will help clarify the mechanisms that drive metastasis and could inform the development of related therapies.  

One Tool to Screen Them All

MIT News

April 8, 2022

The Birnbaum Lab developed a new method for screening huge libraries of antigens and immune cells at the same time, allowing researchers to identify specific interactions between immune cells and their target antigens among myriad possible pairings. The team modified lentiviruses so that they can only enter immune cells if the viral antigen “key” fits a receptor “lock” on the cell’s surface, mirroring the interplay of immune cells and antigens in the body. Because lentiviruses integrate their DNA into their host cells, specific immune cell pairings can be identified by sequencing the genome of a cell sample. The tool, described in Nature Methods, could help researchers make sense of complex immune recognition in diseases such as HIV, COVID, and cancer, and accelerate the development of more effective vaccines and immunotherapies.

The work was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Michael (1957) and Inara Erdei Fund and the Casey and Family Foundation Cancer Research Fund.

Diversifying Innovation

The Boston Globe

April 6, 2022

The Boston Globe profiles the efforts of Sangeeta Bhatia, Susan Hockfield, and Nancy Hopkins to ensure that women have access to the information, resources, and connections needed to start companies. Through their Future Founders Initiative, the trio aims to recenter opportunities for women of color in the Kendall Square innovation ecosystem.

Survey Says

Scientific Reports

March 31, 2022

Collateral sensitivity is when cells’ vulnerability to a particular drug coincides with resistance to another. Hemann and Lauffenbuger Lab researchers conducted a comprehensive survey of collateral sensitivities associated with different combination chemotherapy regimens for cancer. Their findings, published in Scientific Reports, reveal that such responses are uncommon and heterogeneous, suggesting the existence of multiple different states of resistance.

This work was funded in part by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine and the Ludwig Center at MIT.

Decoding Cellular Composition

Nature Biomedical Engineering

March 21, 2022

A Nature Biomedical Engineering paper from the Shalek, Langer and Yilmaz Labs demonstrates a breakthrough screening approach for uncovering molecules that control the cellular composition of barrier tissues. Using intestinal organoids, they discovered a tissue-modifying molecule that targets intestinal stem cells and signals the creation of new Paneth cells, a rare but important antimicrobial producing cell that is known to be depleted in several diseases. Their findings could inform understanding of normal tissue function and therapeutic intervention.

Parts of this work have been supported by the MIT Stem Cell Initiative, the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, and the Bridge Project.

Test Solutions

MIT News

March 18, 2022

Sharp Lab postdoc Digbijay Mahat arrived at MIT with one objective: become an expert in cancer research and diagnostics to help improve healthcare in Nepal. But when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, he put his goal on pause to help Nepal access resources needed to roll out widespread COVID testing and vaccines. Now, as these efforts are taking hold, Mahat continues to advocate for local solutions to cancer disparities in his home country.

Rising to the Occasion

MIT News

March 16, 2022

Love Lab researchers, in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, SpyBiotech, and the Serum Institute of India, have engineered yeast cells to produce a protein subunit vaccine that elicits a strong immune response against SARS-CoV2. Composed of spike protein fragments, the vaccine offers a safe, inexpensive, easy-to-store alternative to RNA vaccines, particularly well suited to low- and middle-income countries. The work was published in Science Advances.

Path to Progress

The Guardian

March 12, 2022

Robert Langer walks and talks with The Guardian, sharing his pathway into chemical engineering, the importance of taking failure in stride, and how his 1976 invention—polymer capsules designed to deliver nucleic acids and other large molecules to cells—was an important early step toward the development of mRNA vaccines.  

Predicting Gene Expression

MIT News

March 11, 2022

A neural network model from the Regev Lab deciphers the evolutionary past and future of gene regulation. The model, described in Nature, predicts how changes to non-coding DNA sequences affect gene expression and can be used to custom-design expression patterns in cells for industrial and pharmaceutical purposes, including potential treatments for cancer.