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

Splice of life

MIT News

February 20, 2025

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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Showing 61–70 of 617 stories

Fast track to healing could spell tumor trouble

MIT News

August 21, 2024

A new study from the Yilmaz Lab demonstrates the benefits and downside of fasting.

While low-calorie diets and intermittent fasting are known to boost intestinal regeneration and aid recovery from injuries or inflammation, this study, published in Nature, reveals something new: it also leads to a higher risk of cancer in mice. Further studies are needed before forming any conclusion as to whether fasting has a similar effect in humans.

This research was funded in part 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.
 

There's no place like home

MIT Koch Institute

August 19, 2024

Vander Heiden Lab researchers showed that metastasized cancer cells prefer the nutrient landscape of their home tissue and retain more of their metabolic programming than previously thought. Their results, published in Nature Metabolism, suggest that the metabolic programs developed in a cancer cell’s tissue of origin may limit where it can metastasize.

This study was funded in part by the Lustgarten Foundation, the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, the Ludwig Center at MIT, and the Emerald Foundation.

Progress for PanTher

PR NewsWire

August 13, 2024

Following positive initial results, PanTher has received IND clearance to advance their absorbable drug-delivery film for treating pancreatic cancer to the next phase of clinical trials. PanTher’s approaches—based on their signature platform, developed in the Edelman lab with support from the Bridge Project—provide continuous, high-dose treatment of potent therapeutics exclusively at the tumor site.

Keeping it local with immunotherapy

Nature Immunology

August 7, 2024

A new study from the Irvine and Wittrup labs, published in Nature Immunology, describes a novel immunotherapy approach that delivers and retains cytokines directly in tumors and nearby lymph nodes via a combination of locally administered IL-12 and IL-15, both engineered to target the CD45 receptor.

Unlike other efforts, this approach localizes the effects of cytokines, ensuring that the drugs stay inside the tumor and neighboring lymph nodes to prevent leakage and the severe systemic side effects that accompany it.

Alex Shalek to direct IMES

MIT News

August 6, 2024

Alex Shalek has been appointed Director of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Sciences (IMES). IMES integrates engineering, science, and medicine to advance and accelerate innovation in human health. Shalek, who is also the J. W. Kieckhefer Professor in the Department of Chemistry, as well as a member of the Koch Institute and the MIT Stem Cell Initiative, began his appointment on August 1.

Recognizing Excellence

MIT News

July 11, 2024

Highlighting the exceptional expertise and essential research role played by our Robert A. Swanson (1969) Biotechnology Center, members of the Peterson (1957) Nanotechnology Materials Core Facility staff were recognized with the 2024 MIT Excellence Award in the Innovative Solutions category. Congratulations to Margaret (Peggy) Bisher, Giovanni de Nola, David Mankus, and Dong Soo Yun!

Primed for success

Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology

July 11, 2024

Carmen Martin Alonso, 2024 HST graduate, has been awarded a provisional patent for her liquid biopsy priming agents developed in the labs of Sangeeta Bhatia, Chris Love, and the Broad Institute's Viktor Adalsteinsson. Alonso’s priming agents make it easier to detect circulating tumor DNA in blood samples, which could enable earlier cancer diagnosis and help guide treatment.   

A SMART way to produce (CAR)T-cells

MIT News

July 9, 2024

Michael Birnbaum and researchers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology Centre (SMART) have discovered a way to produce CAR T-cells for the treatment of cancer. The technology, which uses a microfluidic chip roughly the size of a pack of cards, could lower manufacturing costs for cell therapies and enable point-of-care CAR T-cell production in hospitals. 

Stark wins V Scholar Award

V Foundation

July 8, 2024

Congratulations to Jessica Stark, one of a class of 15 recipients selected as part of the V Foundation’s A Grant of Her Own: The Women Scientists Innovation Award for Cancer Research, aimed at addressing longstanding gender disparities in research. Stark studies the interplay between the immune system and glycans—cell surface sugars—and how to leverage it to improve cancer immunotherapy.

Deciphering T cell diversity

MIT News

June 28, 2024

MIT News profiled Michael Birnbaum’s efforts to develop large scale screening tools to decipher how diverse T cells recognize their targets. Birnbaum co-founded Kelonia, which is adapting the approach to reprogram T cells to target specific antigens directly inside the body to treat a broad range of diseases including cancer, autoimmune disorders, and viral infections.