Faculty

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Showing 69 faculty members

Intramural faculty

Intramural faculty members have laboratories in the Koch Institute building.

Daniel Anderson

Professor Anderson develops devices, materials, and vaccines to create customizable living and gene therapies for cancer, diabetes, and other applications.

Angela Belcher

Head of the Department of Biological Engineering

Professor Belcher seeks to understand and harness processes of nature to design materials and devices for cancer, energy, and the environment.

Sangeeta Bhatia

Director, Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine

Professor Bhatia integrates engineering, medicine, and biology to develop novel platforms for understanding, diagnosing, and treating cancer and other diseases.

Michael Birnbaum

Professor Birnbaum focuses on understanding and manipulating adaptive immune responses in cancer and infection.

Jianzhu Chen

Professor Chen seeks fundamental understandings of the immune system and their translation into immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases.

Michael Cima

Professor Cima develops materials, diagnostics, and treatments to improve human health, focusing on cancer, metabolic diseases, trauma, and urological disorders. 

Paula Hammond

Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor Hammond designs polymers, including controlled-release films and nanoparticles for drug and nucleic acid delivery in cancer and other diseases.

Michael Hemann

Professor Hemann uses high throughput genetics and tractable pre-clinical models to investigate basic mechanisms of cancer drug resistance.

Susan Hockfield

A neuroscientist by training, Professor Hockfield is MIT President Emerita, and a longtime advocate for interdisciplinary research and convergence.

David Housman

Professor Housman studies the biological underpinnings of Huntington’s disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, to develop effective strategies for intervention.

Richard O. Hynes

Professor Hynes studies metastasis, the spread of tumor cells throughout the body, particularly the role of extracellular matrix, an important component of tumor microenvironment.    

Darrell Irvine

Associate Director, Koch Institute

Professor Irvine develops technologies that boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer in order to create safer, more effective immunotherapies.

Tyler Jacks

Co-Director, Ludwig Center at MIT

Professor Jacks investigates the events contributing to cancer evolution, and has engineered widely-used mouse models of human cancers.

Kristin Knouse

Professor Knouse studies how tissues sense and respond to damage, seeking new treatments for conditions ranging from tissue degeneration to cancer.

Angela Koehler

Interim Associate Director

Professor Koehler’s lab applies chemical biology approaches to expand the ‘druggable’ proteome, emphasizing proteins that are dysregulated in cancer.

Robert Langer

Professor Langer develops long-term and controlled-release drug delivery systems for a variety of applications, including cancer therapy, insulin, and vaccines.

Jacqueline Lees

Associate Dean, MIT School of Science

Professor Lees investigates genes that influence cancer development and progression, with particular focus on regulators that control stem cell function.

J. Christopher Love

Professor Love develops single-cell analysis and biomanufacturing technologies to accelerate the discovery and production of vaccines, cancer therapeutics, and biomedicines. 

Scott Manalis

Professor Manalis develops novel instrumentation for cancer research.

Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera

Professor Sánchez-Rivera aims to understand how genes and disease-predisposing mutations interact with and within an individual’s genome to influence disease.

Ram Sasisekharan

Professor Sasisekharan studies how cell function is regulated by the extracellular environment, and develops antibody engineering tools for infectious disease and cancer.

Phillip Sharp

Professor Sharp investigates transcription and RNA splicing to identify signatures for early cancer detection and novel therapeutic targets.

Yadira Soto-Feliciano

Professor Soto-Feliciano studies how chromatin regulates gene expression and how these molecular mechanisms are altered in cancer.

Stefani Spranger

Professor Spranger studies the mechanisms underlying interactions between cancer and the immune system.

Matthew Vander Heiden

Director, Koch Institute 

Professor Vander Heiden studies how metabolism is altered in cancer and seeks to understand and identify metabolic targets for cancer therapy.

Forest White

Professor White uses systems biology and computational modeling to characterize signaling networks and the tumor-immune interface to identify therapeutic targets.

Dane Wittrup

Professor Wittrup develops protein engineering technologies for the discovery and improvement of cancer biopharmaceuticals and immunotherapies. 

Michael Yaffe

Director, MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine

Professor Yaffe studies signaling networks that control cellular stress responses, including DNA damage responses, inflammation, and cell cycle progression in cancer development and treatment. 

Ömer Yilmaz

Professor Yilmaz studies and models the effects of various diets in tissue regeneration, aging, and cancer initiation.

Extramural faculty

Extramural faculty members come from departments and centers across the MIT campus to share in the vision of the Koch Institute.

Regina Barzilay

Professor Barzilay works on machine learning models for cancer diagnostics and drug discovery.

Stephen Bell

Professor Bell probes the cellular machinery that replicates chromosomes, including how dysfunctions in this machinery contribute to cancer.

Paul Blainey

Professor Blainey integrates molecular, optical, microfluidic, and computational technologies to understand and engineer cellular activities related to cancer and other health challenges.

Edward Boyden

Professor Boyden develops tools to analyze and control biological systems with great precision, informing treatment and diagnosis of complex diseases.

Laurie Boyer

Professor Boyer investigates genetic mechanisms that drive heart development, regeneration, and chemotherapy-induced cardiac damage, to inform tissue repair and cancer treatment strategies.

Christopher Burge

Professor Burge combines experimental and computational approaches to understand RNA binding proteins and their role in cancer.

Eliezer Calo

Professor Calo studies how cells build ribosomes and how ribosomal dysfunction influences developmental disorders and cancer.

Lindsay Case

Professor Case seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms that lead to aberrant cell migration and signaling during cancer metastasis.

Brandon DeKosky

Professor DeKosky develops high-throughput systems to characterize adaptive immunity and accelerate drug and vaccine discovery against cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmunity.

Patrick Doyle

Professor Doyle uses soft matter concepts to develop microparticle drug formulations and bioassays for application in cancer and other diseases.

Elazer Edelman

Professor Edelman integrates vascular and cancer biology to improve understanding of endothelial-tumor interactions and essence of cancer regulation.

Katie Galloway

Professor Galloway use systems and synthetic biology to understand and engineer cell-fate transitions including cellular reprogramming and oncogenesis.

Linda Griffith

Professor Griffith develops biomaterials, scaffolds, and analytical techniques for regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and drug development for cancer and other diseases.

Leonard Guarente

Professor Guarente investigates the biological mechanisms of aging and their role in cancer metabolism, DNA repair, and the tumor microenvironment.

Anders Hansen

Professor Hansen studies 3D genome structure and function, with a particular focus on dysregulation of gene expression in cancer.

H. Robert Horvitz

Professor Horvitz analyzes the roles of genes in animal development and behavior, gaining insight into human diseases including cancer.

Rudolf Jaenisch

Professor Jaenisch uses pluripotent cells to study genetics and epigenetics of human diseases (Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, autism, cancer) and of SARS-CoV-2.

Jeremiah A. Johnson

Professor Johnson develops methods for synthesizing large molecules and uses these molecules for applications including cancer therapeutics and imaging.

Roger Kamm

Professor Kamm builds models of cancer and other tissues, seeking to understand how cells sense and respond to mechanical stimuli.

Amy Keating

Professor Keating analyzes protein-protein interactions important for cell signaling and human health, including those implicated in cancer.

Laura Kiessling

Professor Kiessling elucidates the roles of carbohydrates in cells, aiming to develop treatments and diagnostics for various diseases, including cancer.

Eric Lander
(on leave)

Professor Lander, a geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician, is interested in every aspect of the human genome and its application to medicine.

Douglas Lauffenburger

Professor Lauffenburger uses experimental and computational tools to analyze cell dysregulation, developing new therapies for cancer, inflammatory pathologies, and the immune system.

Harvey Lodish

Professor Lodish's lab studied the development of blood and fat cells, modifying red blood cells to deliver therapeutics, including for cancer.

Timothy Lu

Professor Lu develops techniques for constructing, probing, modeling, and modulating engineered biological circuits for infectious disease, nanotechnology, and cancer.

David Page

Professor Page studies the genetic differences between males and females and the ramifications of these differences on cancer and other diseases.

Bradley Pentelute

Professor Pentelute modifies proteins to deliver biomolecules into cells and treat diseases such as cancer, and develops platforms for rapid protein synthesis.

Ron Raines

Professor Raines uses the ideas and methods of chemistry to understand and control life processes, including cancer.

Aviv Regev
(on leave)

Professor Regev develops experimental and computational approaches to understand biological circuits, gene regulation, evolution, and alterations in cancer-causing genes.

Alex Shalek

Professor Shalek systematically examines how cells and their interactions drive tissue-level behaviors in human health and disease, including cancer.

Graham Walker

Professor Walker focuses on DNA repair, mutagenesis, and cellular responses to DNA damage in various contexts, including cancer and aging.

Robert Weinberg

Co-Director, Ludwig Center at MIT

Professor Weinberg studies the molecular mechanisms involved in the formation of cancer stem cells, tumor development, and metastasis.

Ron Weiss

Professor Weiss programs cells to perform dedicated tasks for a range of environmental and biomedical applications, including cancer therapeutics.

Jonathan Weissman

Professor Weissman uses high-resolution lineage tracing combined with single cell analyses and CRISPR-based functional genomic tools to understand tumor evolution.

Richard Young

Professor Young studies the regulation of gene expression to understand how these controls go awry in cancer and other diseases.

Emeritus and former faculty

Recognizing tenured, intramural Koch Institute faculty members who have passed away or no longer have active laboratories.

Angelika Amon
(1967-2020)

Cell biologist Angelika Amon studied molecular mechanisms governing chromosome segregation and the implications of chromosome mis-segregation for human diseases such as cancer.

Herman N. Eisen
(1918-2014)

Immunologist Herman Eisen uncovered fundamental biological processes, in particular interactions between the immune system and cancer cells.

Frank B. Gertler

Biologist Frank B. Gertler explored the molecular mechanisms underlying tumor cell invasion and metastasis.

Nancy Hopkins

Geneticist Nancy Hopkins mapped RNA tumor virus genes in mouse models and developed zebrafish models to study early vertebrate development and cancer.  

Frank Solomon

Cell biologist Frank Solomon’s laboratory focused on intrinsic determinants of cell shape, using the techniques of biochemistry, genetics and cell and molecular biology.