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Luc7, the blue group of proteins, against a background of human cells.

Splice of life

MIT News

The Burge lab has discovered a new type of control over RNA splicing, a process critical for gene expression. Appearing in a new Nature Communications paper, their study sheds light on how this control mechanism can go wrong—and serve as a potential therapeutic target—in acute myelogenous leukemias and other diseases.

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Inventional WISDM

MIT News

KI postdoc Ritu Raman spoke with the MIT Innnovation Initiative about her STEM journey, MIT "hustlers," and her vision for the Women in Innovation and STEM Database at MIT. Originally designed to increase visibility of women in STEM, the newly relaunched platform also promotes collaboration and rapid innovation.

Enter Entrepreneurship

Chemical & Engineering News

“Nobody ever got anywhere by listening to no," says Chemical & Engineering News about their 2020 Trailblazers. Included on the list are Koch Institute member Paula Hammond, the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering and head of MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering, and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder, chairperson, and managing director of Biocon and longtime friend of the Koch Institute. Read their stories to discover how they catalyzed their academic pursuits into top-notch entrepreneurship.

2020 Visions

MIT Koch Institute

Although the halls are quiet, the Koch Institute Public Galleries still shine a hopeful light on Main Street. Ten newly installed images, representing everything from microbes to microfabrication, celebrate the discoveries and innovations of MIT’s life sciences research. With added perspectives from STAT, Popular Science, and Cell Picture Show, the tenth annual Image Awards exhibition awaits your view! 

Spring Into STEM with MIT BLOSSOMS

MIT BLOSSOMS

Greg Ekchian, Kate Koch, Yunpeng Liu, and Azucena "Susy" Ramos star in a new MIT BLOSSOMS video. By sharing their own diverse journeys into cancer research, the KI trainees challenge stereotypes about scientists and engineers and invite high school students to imagine their own paths into STEM careers.

A Bridge to Better Biopsies

Clinical Cancer Research

A team including KI member Christopher Love customized blood biopsies using genetic profiles of patients' tumors. A study published in Clinical Cancer Research and funded in part by the Bridge Project showed that the biopsies monitor up to hundreds of different mutations, potentially detecting cancer recurrence years ahead of traditional approaches.

Did you eat your Wheaties?

MIT 24 Hour Challenge

Greetings, cancer fighters! TODAY the Koch Institute is throwing down in MIT’s 24-Hour Challenge. At stake is critical, unrestricted support for research, trainees, and cutting-edge equipment to keep the KI on the frontline of progress against cancer. In this year’s challenge all gifts benefit the Koch Institute Director’s Fund, where gifts from 120 donors will unlock an anonymous challenge gift of an extra $10K.

But wait, there’s more! Gifts from an additional 30 donors will unlock another $15K from Steve Corman '58, SM ’61, who for years has led by example on challenging oneself to do more to fight cancer. That’s an extra $25,000 up for grabs to advance research and training. Today’s challenge is all about the KI community coming together to support innovative solutions for cancer. Learn more about how you can help clinch this challenge

Speaking Frankly

MIT Koch Institute

Cancer patients rarely get to meet the researchers behind their treatments, and cancer researchers rarely get to put a name or face to the people who benefit from their work. Yet, that’s precisely what happened when retiree Frank Lovell and postdoc Jesse Patterson chatted after the Koch Institute’s recent SOLUTIONS with/in/sight.

Frank was a participant in a clinical trial showcased that evening, for a prostate cancer combination therapy pairing the widely-used targeted therapy abiraterone with the Plk1 inhibitor onvansertib. The trial also represents a powerful synergy, starting with the Yaffe Lab and their Bridge Project clinical collaborators, and catalyzed by a chance connection with west coast biotech Trovagene. For patients like Frank, this combination is turning out to be far greater than the sum of its parts.

Convening on COVID

Boston Globe

Sangeeta Bhatia is co-chairing the Proposal Selection Task Force for the newly formed Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness. Bringing together clinicians and scientists from the Boston and Cambridge communities, the consortium aims to accelerate the development of diagnostic tools, treatments, and vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Model for Neuroblastoma

Whitehead Institute

The laboratories of Rudolf Jaenisch and Stefani Spranger, the Howard S. (1953) and Linda B. Stern Career Development Professor, have developed a mouse to study tumor development and immune response in neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer that has proven difficult to study in animal models. The mice, described in a study appearing in Cell Stem Cell, were modified to include human cells in parts of the nervous system. 

Deep Learning at IAP

MIT News

Bhatia Lab grad student Ava Soleimany is helping to spread machine-learning tools into research labs across MIT with IAP course 6.S191 Introduction to Deep Learning. Co-designed and taught with Alexander Amini, her class begins with machine learning basics and culminates with students making real-world applications of their own. The pair were inspired to create the course through their own experiences using machine learning in research—Soleimany develops nanosensors for the early detection of lung cancer (supported by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via Upstage Lung Cancer).