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Viktor Adalsteinsson

KI alum Viktor Adalsteinsson develops liquid biopsies to detect cancer

Slice of MIT

March 6, 2024

Cancer patients who undergo surgery are often left with a frightening question: Did the surgeons get all the cancerous cells? No one wants a recurrence of disease, but additional treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy have significant side effects. That’s why Viktor Adalsteinsson PhD ’15 has been developing tools to support better-informed treatment decisions: so-called “liquid biopsies” that can detect the presence of cancer from a simple blood test.

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Showing 401–410 of 537 stories

Homing in on Hypoxia

MIT Spectrum

December 13, 2019

Inspired by a desire to work on pressing, unaddressed medical needs, Cima Lab postdoc Greg Ekchian is developing a way to measure oxygen levels in tumors in order to improve cancer treatment. Until now, clinicians have been unable to quickly assess tumor tissue for areas of hypoxia (oxygen deprivation). Hypoxic areas can drive chemoresistance, but respond to high-dose radiation. Working with clinical collaborators through the Bridge Project, Ekchian is testing the strategy in a pilot trial of cervical cancer patients. In another project supported by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program, he is developing a more advanced version of the original device.

KI Gets Two Therapeutic Thumbs Up

MIT Koch Institute

November 21, 2019

New startup Immunitas Therapeutics combines immunology and genetic targeting to stop tumors with a platform incorporating Bridge Project research by Aviv Regev, Mario Suvà, Dane Wittrup, and Kai Wucherpfennig. 

Sunflower Therapeutics will develop the Love lab’s nimble technology to dramatically reduce the time and cost to develop and manufacture biologics for patients around the world, from orphan diseases to areas without healthcare infrastructure. 

A Farewell to ARMS?

MIT News

November 20, 2019

Fusion-positive alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) is a rare, deadly, and poorly understood skeletal muscle cancer. Thanks, however, to a high-risk, high-reward grant from the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, this pediatric cancer faces a new adversary in KI member Angela Koehler. As part of a multi-institutional team, Koehler will use her signature microarray technology to screen for potential compounds that target the so-called “undruggable” fusion oncoproteins responsible for ARMS. The work is expected to open up new therapeutic opportunities for patients and inform drug development strategies for other challenging “orphan diseases.”

Here Be Dragonfly

MIT Koch Institute

November 20, 2019

Dragonfly, co-founded by KI director Tyler Jacks, launched its first clinical trial, a study of multiple solid tumor types, with a drug candidate called DF1001; the drug is the first from its TriNKET™ platform of NK cell-based immunotherapies to move into humans. The company also entered a partnership with AbbVie to help commercialize other candidates in its pipeline.

A Means to an End

MIT News

November 19, 2019

The Love and Shalek labs devised a high throughput single-cell RNA sequencing method for identifying T cells that share a particular target. Conventional RNA sequencing reads only one end of an RNA molecule. Yet, the variable sequences encoding for T cell receptors (TCR), which bind to receptors on target cells, reside on the other end. The new method, published in Nature Immunology and partly supported by the Bridge Project, complements the conventional approach by amplifying TCR-encoding RNA molecules labeled for their T cells of origin, then pulls and sequences them. The study identified T cells that produce inflammation in peanut allergies, but the technique can be applied to a variety of T cell responses, including patient responses to cancer immunotherapies.

Transforming Early Detection: More Than Meets the A.I.

MIT Koch Institute

November 7, 2019

KI member and computer scientist Regina Barzilay spoke with The New York Times and PBS’s FRONTLINE about how her own breast cancer diagnosis inspired her to use machine learning tools to empower physicians and patients alike. Working with physician Connie Lehman, Barzilay’s A.I. systems are improving mammography and enabling earlier detection—and prediction—of the disease.

Lumicell Hits the Home Stretch

MIT Koch Institute

November 7, 2019

KI startup Lumicell launched a pivotal trial for its Lumicell Imaging System, a final step toward FDA approval for the innovative image-guided cancer surgery technology. Supported early on by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, the system was developed by KI member Linda Griffith, with MIT collaborator Moungi Bawendi and former KI administrator W. David Lee ’69. Lumicell’s system pairs an injectable contrast agent with a hand-held, single-cell resolution imager to scan surgical margins for residual cancer cells. Proprietary software produces real-time images that help surgeons take immediate action to prevent repeat surgeries, lower healthcare costs, and improve patient outcomes.

New Target for Small Cell Lung Cancer

MIT News

November 6, 2019

Researchers in the Jacks and Vander Heiden labs identified a new therapeutic target for small cell lung cancer (SCLC), an especially aggressive form of lung cancer with limited options for treatment. In a study appearing in Science Translational Medicine and featured in the NIH Director's Blog, the team used genetic screens to search for SCLC targets that could be tested relatively quickly and easily in a clinical setting. Researchers discovered a metabolic vulnerability to the loss of DHODH, a key enzyme in the pyrimidine synthesis pathway. They also found that a DHODH inhibitor brequinar—already approved for use in patients as an immunosuppressant—slowed tumor progression and increased survival in SCLC mouse models and was effective in treating two of four patient-derived small cell lung cancer tumor models. The study was funded in part by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine.

Cell-based Therapy Squeezes into Human Trials

MIT Koch Institute

October 29, 2019

Paving the way for SQZ Biotech’s first human trial, the FDA accepted the company’s IND application for a cell-based therapeutic vaccine to treat HPV-positive tumors, including reproductive and head and neck cancers. SQZ’s therapies, based on research by the KI’s Langer and Irvine labs, with MIT collaborator Klavs Jensen, activate the immune system against cancer. SQZ’s signature CellSqueeze device opens a temporary hole in a cell membrane through which materials can pass, in this case inserting tumor-associated antigens into peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Proof-of-concept studies demonstrating the potential of both the device and a strategy using B-cells (one type of PBMC) were supported by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund.

Bhatia and Young Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

MIT News

October 21, 2019

Congratulations to KI faculty members Sangeeta Bhatia and Richard Young on their election to the National Academy of Medicine. Bhatia was honored for “pioneering small-scale technologies to interface cells with synthetic platforms.” She is one of only 25 individuals who have been elected to all three National Academies—a distinction shared with fellow KI investigators Paula Hammond and Robert Langer. Young was honored "for fundamental insights into gene control in human health and disease, invention of widely used new technologies, and the development of novel therapeutics for cancer."