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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 421–430 of 532 stories

Compound Interest

MIT News

June 20, 2019

Researchers in the laboratories of KI faculty members Michael Hemann and Graham Walker discovered a compound that may make cancer cells more susceptible to cisplatin and similar cancer therapies on the first and, importantly, subsequent doses. Cisplatin and drugs like it work by severely damaging the DNA of cancer cells, which have often lost one of the more reliable means of DNA repair. The newly-identified compound, known as JH-RE-06, interferes with a key component of translesion synthesis, a less accurate DNA repair pathway that not only helps cells survive chemotherapy, but introduces mutations that might confer resistance to future treatment. The study, appearing in Cell and funded in part by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, found that the combination killed many more cells than cisplatin alone and that surviving cells were far less able to generate new mutations.

Better Breast Cancer Risk Prediction

MIT Koch Institute

May 15, 2019

A deep-learning model developed by KI member and Delta Electronics Professor Regina Barzilay can predict from a mammogram if a patient is likely to develop breast cancer within five years. Trained on mammograms and outcomes from more than 60,000 patients at Massachusetts General Hospital, the model learned to spot patterns in mammograms that are precursors to malignant tumors. Published in Radiology, the model performed significantly better than existing approaches, and could be used in the future to build personalized breast cancer screening plans. Read more.

At last month's SOLUTIONS with/in/sight, Barzilay was joined by her co-author, Harvard Medical School Professor and Director of Breast Imaging at Massachussetts General Hospital Constance Lehman, to talk about the new model and earlier work using deep-learning models to screen for dense breast tissue. Managing Director of The Boston Globe and STAT Linda Pizzuti Henry moderated the discussion, with an introduction from MIT president emerita and KI faculty member Susan Hockfield. Watch video. 

Guiding Light

MIT News

May 15, 2019

A new system developed by the laboratory of KI member and James Mason Crafts Professor Angela Belcher could pinpoint ovarian tumors during debulking surgery and improve survival rates for patients. Most ovarian cancers are diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease, after tumors—often quite small—have spread so abundantly throughout the abdomen that it is difficult for a surgeon to remove them all. In a mouse study led by Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellow Neelkanth Bardhan and published in ACS Nano, researchers identified tumors as small as 0.2 millimeters with a combination of near-infrared light and single-walled carbon nanotubule probes. Researchers are seeking approval for a FDA phase 1 clinical trial for the system and plan to adapt it for monitoring patients for recurrence of tumors and for early-stage diagnosis of ovarian cancer. The system was developed with support from the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program and later tested with support from the Bridge Project.

 Aneuploidy in Prostate Cancer

MIT News

May 15, 2019

Prostate cancers with higher levels of aneuploidy—an abnormal number of chromosomes—also come with higher lethality risk for patients, according to a new study from a Bridge Project team co-led by Angelika Amon, KI member and Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty member Lorelei Mucci. Using a collection of prostate cancer tumor samples, researchers extrapolated the degree of aneuploidy from each sample's genetic sequencing information and compared it to information about patient outcomes. Patients with a higher degree of aneuploidy were five times more likely to die from the disease. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that aneuploidy could be used to more accurately predict patients' prognosis and to identify patients who might need more aggressive treatment. 

Alpaca Punch

MIT News

May 15, 2019

In two studies appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the laboratory of Richard Hynes, KI member and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research, showed how tumors and metastases could be imaged and treated with lightweight antibodies (or, "nanobodies") derived from alpacas. The nanobodies target the extracellular matrix (ECM), which plays important roles in cancer cell survival, invasion, and development, and is more genetically stable, less heterogenous, and easier to access than cancer cells.

The researchers, led by Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellow Noor Jailkhani, built a nanobody library for ECM proteins that were abundant in the tumor microenvironment, but absent from healthy tissues. In one study, researchers treated mouse cancer models with radioisotope-labled nanobodies. PET/CT imaging revealed clearly visible tumors and metastases. In the companion study, they used the same nanobodies to develop nanobody-based chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to target solid tumors.

"And the Academy and awards go to..."

MIT Koch Institute

May 15, 2019

...Paula Hammond, Ed Boyden, and Aviv Regev, for their election to the National Academy of Sciences. Hammond, David H. Koch Professor in Engineering and head of MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering, is being honored for her work in nanomedicine, using biomaterials to enable targeted drug delivery and self-assembled materials systems for electrochemical energy devices. Boyden, Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology, develops new tools for probing, analyzing, and engineering brain circuits. Regev, Professor of Biology, studies the molecular circuitry that governs the function of mammalian cells in health and disease. ...Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor, for the 2019 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences, awarded by The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation "for discoveries and inventions of materials for drug delivery systems and tissue engineering that have had a transformative impact on human health through chemistry." This prestigious prize in chemistry and related fields was focused this year on advances that have benefited human health. Notably, Langer is the first chemical engineer to receive it.

What's On Your Plate?

eLife

April 23, 2019

Cancer cell metabolism—as well as tumor growth and drug sensitivity—is profoundly influenced by the nutrient profile of the surrounding microenvironment. However, according to new research from the laboratory of KI member Matthew Vander Heiden, the nutrient composition of tumor interstitial fluid is significantly different from the plasma that feeds normal cells. Research in mice also shows variation based on diet and tumor location and site of origin. The findings, published in eLife with former KI postdoc Alex Muir as co-senior author, suggest that model cancer cells grown in media that more closely replicate physiological nutrient levels might better predict which genes are essential to tumor metabolism. The research was funded in part by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine and the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology. 

The Building Blocks of Creative Chemistry

Chemical & Engineering News

April 23, 2019

A Chemical & Engineering News profile of David H. Koch Professor of Engineering Paula Hammond traces her passion for chemical engineering, from her early fascination in high school with the creative potential of chemistry to her current work here at the Koch Institute. Hammond harnesses electrostatic properties of materials to build nanoparticles that address a vast array of engineering problems, from storing electochemical energy to timing and targeting the delivery of cancer drugs.

Of course, as a longtime mentor to students and, currently, the head of MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering, Hammond's recognition of the power of multiple perspectives is not limited to the nanoscale. "Excellence is gained from diversity," she says, which helps us "make inroads into difficult problems because we put together people who have different ways in which they approach problems." 

Myc Drop

Cell Chemical Biology

April 2, 2019

A research team led by KI faculty member Angela Koehler developed a strategy for reducing the activity of Myc, one of the most common, but notoriously difficult to target cancer-promoting genes. Scientists have tried–and failed–for decades to develop drugs that block the Myc protein, which is overexpressed in about 70% of cancers. In a study appearing in Cell Chemical Biology, researchers discovered a new compound that ties up Myc's binding partner, Max. The compound stabilizes bonds between two Max molecules, leaving unpartnered Myc molecules to be broken down within cells. The compound, which the study found to suppress tumor growth in mouse models, has been licensed by Kronos Bio for further study and development. 

Taking a Deep Dive with DOLPHIN

MIT News

March 11, 2019

DOLPHIN, a non-invasive imaging system from the laboratories of KI faculty members Angela Belcher and Paula Hammond, uses near-infrared light to find tiny tumors no more than a few hundred cells large. In a study appearing in Scientific Reports, researchers used their imaging system to track a 0.1-millimeter fluorescent probe through the digestive tract of a living mouse. The study also showed that DOLPHIN (which stands for "Detection of Optically Luminescent Probes using Hyperspectral and diffuse Imaging in Near-infrared") can detect the probes to a tissue depth of 8 centimeters–about 5 centimeters deeper than any existing biomedical optical imaging technique. The researchers are adapting their imaging technology for early diagnosis of ovarian and other cancers that are currently difficult to detect until late stages. The study was led by Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellow Neelkanth Bardhan, and was supported by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program and the Bridge Project.