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Four headshots of winnners of the 2024 Karches Prize - Shandon Amos, Christina Cabana, Ivan Pires, and Jason Yu.

Introducing the 2024 Karches Prize winners

January 24, 2025

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Peter Karches Mentorship Prize — Shandon Amos, Christina Cabana, Ivan Pires, and Jason Yu.

The Peter Karches Mentorship Prize is awarded annually to up to four Koch Institute postdocs, graduate students or research technicians who demonstrate exemplary mentorship of undergraduate researchers or high school students in their labs. The prize allows the Koch Institute community to celebrate and recognize the critical role that mentors play, both personally and professionally, in the early stages of a scientist’s career.

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Showing 221–230 of 595 stories

Inside Passage

Science Translational Medicine

July 25, 2022

The Irvine Lab is developing an intranasal vaccine that can bypass multiple barriers in the nasal cavity and activate a frontline defense against mucosally-transmitted pathogens. Such immunization strategies are much needed across the infectious disease landscape but are limited by poor uptake across mucosal surfaces. In a paper appearing in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers describe how they use the naturally-occurring protein albumin to chaperone vaccine components across the mucosal lining and into the nasal-associated lymphoid tissues where they can generate an effective immune response. The work is also featured in the 2022 Image Awards exhibition.

I Screen, You Screen, We All Screen for Nanoparticles

MIT News

July 21, 2022

What happens if you cross 35 types of nanoparticles with nearly 500 types of cancer cells from more than 20 different tissues of origin? A collaborative screening project led by Hammond Lab researchers used machine learning to uncover thousands of gene-based biomarkers associated with nanoparticle trafficking and binding, including one protein that could be used to determine whether lipid nanoparticles will be taken up by a tumor. Their approach, described in Science, builds a strong foundation for understanding cell-nanoparticle interactions, and could help physicians figure out which patients’ tumors are most likely to respond to nanoparticle-based treatments.

The work was funded in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine.

Think Global, Seq Local

MIT News

July 21, 2022

KI member and associate professor of chemistry Alex Shalek has developed single-cell RNA sequencing approaches to identify small-scale differences in gene expression that have large-scale implications for human health. Also a member of the MIT Stem Cell Initiative, Shalek brings training in chemical physics, computation, nanomaterials, and neurobiology to his current systems biology approach studying relationships between cells and their environments. His laboratory is highly collaborative, lending his expertise to researchers working in a number of areas, including cancer, infectious disease, and allergies.  

Vaccine Technology Gets a Boost

MIT News

July 18, 2022

Biodegradable core-shell microparticles developed by Jaklenec and Langer Lab researchers could be used to administer self-boosting vaccines or combination cancer therapies. Their latest study, published in Science Advances, characterizes the particles' cargo release mechanism and degradation over time, which control the release profile. This project was featured in the 2020 Image Awards exhibition.

Cross-Presented and Accounted For

MIT Koch Institute

July 13, 2022

By processing fragments of tumor cells and pathogens and presenting them as antigens, dendritic cells can train T cells to mount an immune response. The Spranger and White Labs have developed a method that, for the first time, surveys the number and types of antigens cross-presented by dendritic cells. In a study published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer and supported in part by the Frontier Research Program, researchers found the original location of a protein had a profound impact on whether it would be cross-presented by a dendritic cell. The results could help researchers develop new strategies for patients and tumor types that do not respond well to immune checkpoint blockade therapies.

2022 Symposium in Review

MIT Koch Institute

July 8, 2022

Videos from the 20th Annual Cancer Research Symposium, “Ten Years at the Koch Institute,” are now available. Take a tour through keynote talks by Ned Sharpless, Francis Collins, and Matthew Vander Heiden, a panel on the future of convergent science, and research presentations by Koch Institute faculty and alumni.

Liver on a Chip

MIT News

June 27, 2022

A liver tissue model developed by the Bhatia Lab, in collaboration with Boston University's Chen Lab, allows researchers to precisely trace the steps involved in liver regeneration. A recent study, published in PNAS, describes the identification of certain growth factors and molecules that contribute to cells entering the cell cycle. This work presents a complementary approach to the lab's other 3D liver models featured in the 2016 and 2021 Koch Institute Image Awards exhibitions.
 

Langer Wins BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

MIT News

June 17, 2022

Robert Langer, David H. Koch (1962) Institute Professor, has won the prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biology and Biomedicine category. He shares the award with Dr. Katalin Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman  in recognition of their contributions to messenger (mRNA) therapeutics and delivery technology, which enabled the rapid development SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and promises to expand to other therapeutical areas, including cancer, autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders, enzyme deficiencies, and other viral infections. In particular, Langer is cited for his work enabling the repackaging mRNA and other macromolecule therapeutics for their delivery into cells.

The PIs That Bind

MIT News

June 17, 2022

KI members Graham Walker, Michael Hemann, Michael Yaffe, Jiazhu Chen, Sangeeta Bhatia and biologist Sebastian Lourido have been awarded a Bose Research Grant, which supports vanguard research efforts. Their project, “Addressing Critical Human Health Problems with a Special Heme-binding Peptide” uses a recently discovered plant peptide that binds and sequesters a molecule critical in hemoglobin oxygen binding in a new way.

Directed Evolution

Instigators of Change 

June 15, 2022

Angela Belcher spoke with the Instigators of Change podcast about how her career has evolved from working on batteries and solar cells to developing new tools for cancer diagnostics and environmental remediation. Highlights include the story of how the Koch Institute's early-years boot camps and speed dating sessions helped spark her passion for fighting ovarian cancer, and her top tips for team-building and getting inventions to market.