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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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What’s Next for Alejandro Aguilera Castrejón

MIT Koch Institute

April 26, 2023

Catch up with Alejandro Aguilera Castrejón, an inaugural winner of the Angelika Amon Young Scientist Award in 2022. Aguilera talks about his plans for building on his doctoral work in embryogenesis and starting a new lab when he begins his new role as a group leader at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus in March 2024.

Stimulating Hunger

MIT News

April 26, 2023

An ingestible capsule that delivers an electrical current can stimulate the release of the hormone ghrelin. Developed in the lab of KI alum Giovanni Traverso, the capsule could prove useful for treating diseases that involve nausea or loss of appetite, such as anorexia or cachexia (loss of body mass that can occur in patients with cancer or other chronic diseases).

Raising the Barcode for Cancer Detection

MIT News

April 25, 2023

The Bhatia Lab designed a new nanoparticle sensor that, like its previous sensors, could enable early, affordable, and accessible diagnosis of cancer with a simple urine test. As described in Nature Nanotechnology, when the nanoparticles encounter a tumor, they shed DNA “barcodes” into the urine, which can be read on a simple paper strip and analyzed in a medical lab to detect cancer, distinguish between tumor types, or monitor response to treatment.

The research was supported in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine and the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund.

Neel Bardhan Named Break Through Cancer Scientist

Break Through Cancer

April 25, 2023

Congratulations to Neelkanth Bardhan on being named a Break Through Cancer Scientist! Professional scientists in the role cooperate on and lead projects, lending their skill, knowledge and insight to maximize the impact of Break Through Cancer's cross-institutional collaborations. Bardhan works with the Intercepting Ovarian Cancer TeamLab, helping design an optical imaging system for highly sensitive detection of early precursor lesions in ovarian cancer.

Printable Vaccines

MIT News

April 24, 2023

Researchers in the Jaklenec and Langer labs have designed a mobile vaccine printer that could be scaled up to produce hundreds of vaccine doses in a day. This kind of printer, which can fit on a tabletop, could be deployed anywhere vaccines are needed, no cold storage required. The printer produces patches with hundreds of microneedles containing vaccine. The patch can be attached to the skin, allowing the vaccine to dissolve without the need for a traditional injection. In a study appearing in Nature Biotechnology, the researchers showed they could use the printer to produce thermostable Covid-19 RNA vaccines that could induce a comparable immune response to that generated by injected RNA vaccines, in mice.

Steven Truong Awarded Soros Fellowship for New Americans

MIT News

April 21, 2023

Steven Truong, a Koch Institute alum, has been awarded a 2023 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Currently an MD-PhD student at Stanford, he aspires to help solve and treat metabolic disorders such as diabetes. Truong graduated from MIT in 2020 with a double major in biological engineering and writing, and worked in the Langer and Anderson Labs to develop smart insulins and in the Lauffenburger Lab to study the link between the immune system and diabetes.

Emit at MIT

Emit Imaging

April 20, 2023

Emit Imaging, Inc. will launch a project with the MIT Koch Institute's Preclinical Imaging and Testing Facility to enhance 3D imaging technology. The project will incorporate the Koch Institute’s research-based experiences into cryo-fluorescence tomography (CFT) workflow and method improvements, allowing for greater accuracy and efficiency in studying cancer and other diseases. Emit's CFT technology is a 3D imaging technique that allows for high-resolution, high-sensitivity imaging of biological samples, providing crucial insights into the behavior of drugs and proteins. 

Brushing Away Side Effects

MIT News

April 19, 2023

An interdisciplinary team of Koch Institute researchers designed bottlebrush-shaped nanoparticles that provoke immune response against tumors. In a study appearing in Science Advances, researchers from the Johnson, Irvine, Spranger, Langer, and Shalek labs based their nanoparticle prodrug on imidazoquinolines, a class of drugs that activates the immune system against cancer, but can also trigger significant side effects when administered intravenously. The prodrug, or an inactivated form of the medicine, is bound to the bottlebrush backbone, timed to be released in active form once it reaches the tumor. Mice treated with the nanoparticles showed a significant reduction in tumor growth, and showed no side effects.

This study was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, and the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine.

Daniel Anderson Wins 2023 Exner Medal

Wilhelm Exner Medal Foundations

April 17, 2023

Cheers to Daniel Anderson, 2023 Exner Medal laureate! The award is in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of nanotherapeutics and biomaterials and his pioneering work in the development of smart materials for medical devices. These advances have led to a range of products in clinical development, in particular in the field of RNA therapeutics.

A Boost for RNA Vaccines and Therapies

MIT News

April 11, 2023

Sanofi will provide $25 million in support of the Anderson Lab’s efforts to develop new delivery technology for mRNA, as well as RNA-based methods for CRISPR genome editing. Anderson Lab research has already resulted in several RNA vaccine applications currently in clinical trials at Sanofi, with new work including plans for new delivery platforms and improvements to vaccine uptake and effectiveness.