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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 231–240 of 595 stories

Immuno-Pep Squad

Nature

June 15, 2022

The immune system’s ability to detect nascent tumors requires the presentation of protein fragment (peptide) antigens that it can recognize. Due to limitations in how samples are collected and studied, researchers have difficulty identifying peptide presentation patterns specific to cancer. However, an ongoing Jacks Lab/White Lab collaboration, originally begun as a hallway conversation between colleagues, shows the power of combining engineered mouse models with mass spectrometry to better profile the collection of immunopeptides on the surface of cancer cells. The researchers' latest paper, published in Nature, reveals new tumor antigens potentially useful for immunotherapies and understanding of immune response.

Phenotype Phenomenon

MIT News

June 9, 2022

The Weissman Lab has produced the first map tying every human gene to its function in a cell. In a study published in Cell, researchers used the map to explore the effect of genes with previously unknown functions, investigate the response of mitochondria to stress, and screen for genes that cause chromosomes to be lost or gained.  

Model Behavior

MIT News

June 2, 2022

Glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, is notoriously hard to treat. The blood-brain barrier blocks conventional chemotherapies from reaching tumors, and many potential new treatments that work well in animal models end up failing in clinical trials.

In a study published in PNAS and co-led by Charles W. (1955) and Jennifer C. Johnson Clinical Investigator Joelle Straehla, researchers assessed tumor-targeting nanoparticles from the Hammond Lab using a microfluidic human tissue model of glioblastoma from the Kamm Lab that closely replicates the blood-brain barrier. They found that cisplatin-bearing nanoparticles coated with peptide AP2 were able to target and kill glioblastoma tumor cells, suggesting that the model could be used to design nanoparticles with a greater chance of success in the clinic.

Signal Boost

MIT News

May 30, 2022

The Strano Lab developed a photonic technique that dramatically improves the signal of fluorescent sensors, potentially enabling their use for cancer diagnosis or monitoring. In a Nature Nanotechnology study funded in part by the Bridge Project, researchers were able to implant sensors as deep as 5.5 cm and still get a strong signal.

Pinpointing Solutions for Cancer Detection

MIT Spectrum

May 26, 2022

Ovarian cancer is notoriously hard to detect. Lacking in reliable diagnostic or screening techniques and opaque in its biological origins, it is difficult to find or target until it has progressed to dangerously late stages. The Hammond and Irvine Labs, in conjunction with their clinical collaborators and a cohort of patients, are determined to change this.

Drawing on years of expertise in engineering, immunology, and materials chemistry, and on recent funding from the Bridge Project, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers has built a polymer microneedle patch that samples interstitial fluid in the body to screen for microRNAs from cancer cells. The patch, which also has applications for autoimmune diseases, could one day become the first noninvasive screening tool for ovarian cancer.

Ultimate Frisbee

Nature Materials

May 23, 2022

Substantial delivery challenges persist for agents that engage the STING pathway, a highly desirable cancer immunotherapy target. However, new tumor-penetrating lipid nanodiscs developed by the Irvine Lab outperformed previously designed nanoparticles in delivering STING-activating agents to induce tumor rejection and support immune memory against reintroduced tumor cells. This work was published in Nature Materials and supported in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine.

Studying Cancer Across Continents

MIT News

May 19, 2022

New MIT alum and aspiring MD/PhD student Daniel Zhang is headed to the Netherlands on a Fulbright scholarship. His planned project, developing an organoid co-culture system to study malignant rhabdoid tumors and screen for therapeutic vulnerabilities, builds on his longtime work in the Jacks Lab developing genetic knockout models for colorectal cancer.

Becoming Bob Langer

Becoming X

May 17, 2022

A new installment of the Bear Grylls Becoming X series features Bob Langer, who shares how he ended up in the chemical engineering field, how he eventually achieved his research goals, and how he’s put them to work in service of millions of people worldwide.
 

With an AI Towards the Clinic

MIT News

May 17, 2022

Regina Barzilay co-chaired the AI Cures conference for physicians and researchers interested in bringing artificial intelligence tools into the clinic. Fellow KI members Susan Hockfield and Phillip Sharp and Bridge Project collaborator Lecia Sequest were among those who attended the event, which was co-hosted by MIT and Mass General Brigham.
 

A Case for Commendation

MIT News

May 13, 2022

Congratulations to our newest extramural faculty member, biologist Lindsay Case, on being named a Searle Scholar. This annual award honors 15 outstanding U.S. assistant professors who have high potential for ongoing innovative research contributions in medicine, chemistry, or the biological sciences. Case studies the molecular mechanisms that lead to aberrant cell migration and signaling during cancer metastasis.