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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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Koch Institute Names New Director

MIT News

March 31, 2021

Matthew Vander Heiden has been named the next director of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, effective April 1. An MIT professor of biology, a practicing oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a pioneer in the field of cancer cell metabolism, Vander Heiden was one of the first faculty members hired to join the Koch Institute after it was created. He has served as associate director since 2017, and is a member of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology, and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. His work has been recognized by many awards, including the HHMI Faculty Scholar Award and an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award. Now, as he guides the Koch Institute into its second decade, he looks forward to taking advantage of new opportunities to make fundamental discoveries in the biology of cancer, as well as translating existing knowledge into better treatments for patients. Vander Heiden succeeds Tyler Jacks, who has served as director for more than 19 years, first for the MIT Center for Cancer Research and then for its successor, the Koch Institute.

Some Self-Assembly Required

MIT News

March 25, 2021

A new screening platform combines machine learning with high-throughput experimentation to identify self-assembling nanoparticles for drug delivery. Nanoparticles, usually made from lipids, polymers or both, can improve a drug’s pharmacokinetics. However, nanoparticle production can be complex and their drug payload small. In a study published in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers from the Langer and Traverso Labs screened 2.1 million pairings of small molecule drugs and inactive drug ingredients, identifying 100 new nanoparticle formulations that are simple to create and shuttle larger drug cargoes. One of those nanoparticles, combining the cancer medicine sorafenib with glycyrrhizin (the primary flavoring of licorice), proved more effective than than sorafenib alone in both cell culture and a genetic mouse model of liver cancer.

Time to Face the Mucus

MIT News

March 19, 2021

Irvine Lab researchers are building an army of T cells ready to fight disease in the respiratory tract. The inhalable vaccines use the naturally occurring protein albumin to carry immune response-generating antigens into the mucosal lining of lungs and lymph nodes, where soldier T cells learn to recognize and fend off unwanted intruders. In a study published in Science Immunology and funded in part by the Bridge Project and the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, researchers observed a 25-fold increase in T cell response over traditional muscular injections. Ultimately, the team aims to develop vaccines that protect against both viruses and cancer, and combat metastasis by priming the mucosal lining in key organs to reject invading cancer cells. The technology has been licensed by Elicio Therapeutics, which will begin clinical testing of an albumin-binding vaccine later this year.

A Field Guide to Cancer Progression

Whitehead Institute

March 11, 2021

Tag along with the Whitehead Institute’s “Cells Over Time” series to explore key moments of cancer progression. First stop: Jaenisch Lab, where chimeras shed new light on the cellular origins of neuroblastoma. In collaboration with the Spranger Lab, the researchers investigate how newly formed cancer cells “trick” immune cells into not destroying them. Spranger Lab technologies are also being used in the Weinberg Lab to understand the changes that occur when breast cancer cells become metastatic and acclimate to far-flung homes. Of course, this whirlwind tour would not be complete without a visit to the Weissman Lab where researchers have adapted a lung cancer model developed by the Jacks Lab to analyze gene expression as tumors evolve. Together, these intrepid explorers are charting a way forward in cancer biology.

Scientific Modeling

Chemical & Engineering News

March 11, 2021

Paula Hammond guest edits C&EN’s 2021 Trailblazers issue, highlighting the achievements of Black chemists and engineers in their own voices. Amid the reflections on past and present research, accomplishment and inclusion, career origins and evolutions, don’t miss Hammond’s own profile, tracing her path from young nerd to nanomaterials pioneer.

The Companies They Keep

MIT News

March 11, 2021

The Future Founders Initiative is off and running, making important strides to increase the number of woman-founded companies in biotech. Led by KI members Sangeeta Bhatia and Harvey Lodish, the initiative builds on Bhatia's recent work with Susan Hockfield and Nancy Hopkins around gender disparities in entrepreneurship, focusing on networking and community building.

Breaking Through Cancer: Collaborative translational research goes nationwide

MIT Koch Institute

March 11, 2021

Break Through Cancer announced its formal launch as a public foundation designed to find new solutions to the most intractable challenges in cancer. Led by Dr. Tyler Jacks, the David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Founding Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Break Through Cancer will fund and support collaborative research teams drawn from several of the country’s top cancer centers.

Behind the Vaccines

MIT Technology Review

March 11, 2021

Beneath every great biotech innovation lies many years of research. KI members Phil Sharp and Robert Langer reflect on the early days of RNA discovery and innovation in a Tech Review feature by MIT President Rafael Reif, profiling the Institute’s contributions to Moderna’s “overnight” success developing an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. Both Sharp’s work on mRNAs and Langer’s on lipid nanoparticles began in the 1970’s. Similarly, both play an increasingly important role in human health, advancing new tools to fight COVID, cancer and other diseases.

Next Stop KRAS

Elicio Therapeutics

March 11, 2021

The FDA approved biotech startup Elicio will begin clinical testing of their “hitchhiking” therapeutic vaccine candidate designed to target mutated KRAS cancers using the Irvine Lab's signature lymph node targeting technology. The trial will enroll patients with mKRAS+ pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and other solid tumors.

Inside an Immune Response

Science Immunology

March 11, 2021

Working with collaborators to collect longitudinal samples during clinical trials of a new treatment technique for brain hemorrhage, the Love and Shalek Labs have published a new study in Science Immunology illuminating immune activity in acute injury. The team’s data show an evolution of macrophages, a type of immune cell, from a pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory state. The researchers also saw metabolic shifts, and found glycolytic metabolism—normally seen in cancer cells—in the macrophages was associated with better patient outcomes. These types of transitions in macrophage inflammation and metabolism are also known to be important in cancer, for which these findings provide additional insights and reference points.