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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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Breaking Through Cancer: Collaborative translational research goes nationwide

MIT Koch Institute

March 11, 2021

Break Through Cancer announced its formal launch as a public foundation designed to find new solutions to the most intractable challenges in cancer. Led by Dr. Tyler Jacks, the David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Founding Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Break Through Cancer will fund and support collaborative research teams drawn from several of the country’s top cancer centers.

The Companies They Keep

MIT News

March 11, 2021

The Future Founders Initiative is off and running, making important strides to increase the number of woman-founded companies in biotech. Led by KI members Sangeeta Bhatia and Harvey Lodish, the initiative builds on Bhatia's recent work with Susan Hockfield and Nancy Hopkins around gender disparities in entrepreneurship, focusing on networking and community building.

Behind the Vaccines

MIT Technology Review

March 11, 2021

Beneath every great biotech innovation lies many years of research. KI members Phil Sharp and Robert Langer reflect on the early days of RNA discovery and innovation in a Tech Review feature by MIT President Rafael Reif, profiling the Institute’s contributions to Moderna’s “overnight” success developing an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. Both Sharp’s work on mRNAs and Langer’s on lipid nanoparticles began in the 1970’s. Similarly, both play an increasingly important role in human health, advancing new tools to fight COVID, cancer and other diseases.

Next Stop KRAS

Elicio Therapeutics

March 11, 2021

The FDA approved biotech startup Elicio will begin clinical testing of their “hitchhiking” therapeutic vaccine candidate designed to target mutated KRAS cancers using the Irvine Lab's signature lymph node targeting technology. The trial will enroll patients with mKRAS+ pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and other solid tumors.

Progress Against Prostate Cancer Proceeds

Cardiff Oncology

March 11, 2021

Positive data continue to emerge from Phase II clinical trials in advanced prostate cancer of a synergistic drug combination identified by the Yaffe Lab. Fine-tuning the dosing schedule more than doubled the percentage of patients whose cancer stabilized or responded positively to treatment. Ongoing biomarker research in the Yaffe Lab has revealed genetic mutations that may help clinicians predict treatment response to the combination and support efficient design of future trials. This trial and related research have been funded in part by the Bridge Project and the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine.

Inside an Immune Response

Science Immunology

March 11, 2021

Working with collaborators to collect longitudinal samples during clinical trials of a new treatment technique for brain hemorrhage, the Love and Shalek Labs have published a new study in Science Immunology illuminating immune activity in acute injury. The team’s data show an evolution of macrophages, a type of immune cell, from a pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory state. The researchers also saw metabolic shifts, and found glycolytic metabolism—normally seen in cancer cells—in the macrophages was associated with better patient outcomes. These types of transitions in macrophage inflammation and metabolism are also known to be important in cancer, for which these findings provide additional insights and reference points.

New Immunotherapy Target in Glioblastoma

Cell

March 11, 2021

A new paper in Cell from a Bridge Project team working on brain cancer sheds light on how gene expression in T cells affects response to immunotherapy in tumors called gliomas. Single-cell RNA sequencing approaches developed in the Regev Lab highlighted the role of KLRB1. Silencing this gene in cell and animal models enhanced T cell killing of glioma cells, suggesting its utility as an immunotherapy target.

Tying Up Loose Ends in RNA Therapeutics

Chemical & Engineering News

March 11, 2021

Orna, co-founded by KI member Daniel Anderson and based on strategies developed in his lab offers an alternative to current RNA-based therapies. By connecting the loose ends of linear messenger RNA molecules, Orna’s circularized “oRNAs” could improve stability of mRNA therapies, leading to more efficient delivery of drugs into cells and increased expression of disease-fighting proteins. The company will develop and test their approach in the area of cancer immunotherapy.

Bhatia Tracks Treatment Response

MIT News

February 4, 2021

Best known for applications in cancer diagnostics, the Bhatia lab’s synthetic biosensor platform can also be used to monitor and understand treatment response. In partnership with Gilead, Bhatia’s startup, Glympse Bio, is using the technology in trials with NASH patients.

Making Mammography-based Risk Assessment More Robust

MIT News

February 4, 2021

Researchers led by Regina Barzilay and Constance Lehman (Mass General Hospital) developed a new risk-assessment algorithm to improve accuracy, consistency, and equity in breast cancer diagnosis. Described on YouTube and published Science Translational Medicine, the Mirai system incorporates the unique requirements of risk modeling into their AI-driven screening tools and works across diverse populations, leading to equitable healthcare outcomes.