News

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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Targeting Patient Success with Precision Cancer Medicine

MIT News

February 1, 2018

We are excited to kick off the new year by announcing the launch of the new MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, housed within the KI and established by a major gift from an anonymous donor. With Director Michael Yaffe at the helm, the Center will advance progress within the field of precision medicine — one of the KI's five research focus areas. Fellow faculty members Michael Hemann, Angela Koehler, Matthew Vander Heiden, and Forest White join this endeavor. Driven by internal and external collaborations, particularly with clinical partners, the Center will focus on identifying the most effective drugs and combinations for individual patients. 

New Year Brings New KI Members

MIT Koch Institute

January 31, 2018

The Koch Institute is thrilled to announce four new extramural faculty members: Regina Barzilay, Ed Boyden, Jeremiah Johnson, and Alex Shalek. Barzilay, the Delta Electronics Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, will bring to the KI her unique expertise in using data and machine learning to advance cancer detection and treatment. She is the recent recipient of a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship, which is known by many as the “genius award.” Boyden is Associate Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT's McGovern Institute and Media Lab, where he leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group. His work focuses on developing tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems such as the brain, and applying those tools systematically to reveal fundamental principles of biological function. Boyden was recently named the recipient of NIH's Transformative Research Award. Johnson, Associate Professor of Chemistry at MIT, works to develop new macromolecule tools to address problems in chemistry, medicine, biology, energy, and polymer physics. He was recently named the winner of the MIT School of Science Teaching Prize for Undergraduate Education. Lastly, Shalek, who was recently named the Pfizer Inc.-Gerald Laubach Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, leverages advances in nanotechnology and chemical biology to develop broadly applicable platforms for manipulating and profiling many interacting single cells in order to examine ensemble cellular behaviors from the bottom up. Fun fact: Alex was also a Koch Institute Image Awards winner back in 2013. Welcome, all!

Fit to be Peptide

MIT News

January 15, 2018

A collaborative Bridge Project team, led by MIT biologist Amy Keating and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute physician-scientists Loren Walensky and Anthony Letai, describe a novel strategy for inhibiting Mcl-1, a protein that is often overexpressed in cancer and contributes to tumor cell survival and resistance to chemotherapy. The team modified small protein fragments, or peptides, using chemical approaches and sequence optimization techniques, to produce peptides that are stable and can enter cells. When administered to cancer cells that are dependent on Mcl-1 for survival, the peptides successfully induced cell death. This research, published in PNAS, could lead to the development of new drugs for many different cancer types, and thus holds significant promise for clinical translation. 

Lumicell's Success Shines Bright

Business Wire

December 7, 2017

Lumicell, a Koch Institute startup, is lighting up the Boston biotech scene! With its Lumicell System, the company aims to eliminate the need for repeat cancer surgeries, reduce the incidence of relapse, and save billions in healthcare costs. The low-cost technology comprises an injectable fluorescing agent and hand-held imaging wand, which emits light at a specific wavelength to illuminate, in real time, even single cancer cells left in surgical margins. Earlier this month, the company presented data from its ongoing Phase 2 clinical study in breast cancer patients showing removal of tumors as small as 1 mm. Trials are currently underway in other solid tumors — including prostate, colorectal, esophageal and pancreatic cancers — and being planned for lung, ovarian, and brain cancers. In a nod to the recently announced success of its clinical studies, Lumicell announced a $28.7 million Series C financing round.

As linked to earlier in this issue, on November 29, guests of the KI got an inside look at Lumicell's latest progress at SOLUTIONS with/in/sight, "Cells in the City." Lumicell's Linda Griffith, W. David Lee, and Moungi Bawendi joined SQZ Biotechnology's Armon Sharei and Amy Schulman to discuss their journeys from bench to biotech, and how grassroots funding from the Koch Institute’s signature Frontier Research Program helped propel these high-risk ideas into high-reward technology. Watch the presentations here and see photos from the event here.

Manalis Mirrors Multiple Myeloma Response Rates

MIT News

November 20, 2017

And the KI is nine for nine! Comparing measurements of cancer cell mass accumulation rates obtained using their signature cell-weighing technology to patient outcomes, a new paper in Nature Communications shows that the Manalis Lab has taken an important step in demonstrating that they can accurately predict how tumors will respond to treatment, before treatment is given. Building on previous work conducted under the auspices of the Bridge Project, researchers at the KI and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute tested a variety of drugs and combination therapies on tumor cells from nine multiple myeloma patients. In all of the pilot study's cases, measurements of cells' sensitivity and resistance in the lab matched patient response to actual treatment in the clinic. The team is now working to validate their approach in a larger clinical study and hopes to expand their investigations to include other cancer types as well. 

Special Biops: Cell-Free DNAgents in the Field

MIT News

November 6, 2017

Liquid biopsies hold expanded potential for more and more patients, thanks to improved techniques developed by researchers at the KI, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and MGH Cancer Center. By analyzing fragments of DNA expelled by cancer cells into the bloodstream, the team, led by Love Lab alumnus Viktor Adalsteinsson, was able to detect and profile the mutations present in these tumors, presenting a viable alternative to traditional biopsy sequencing. As shown in Nature Communications, their non-invasive “cell-free” approach offers particular promise for understanding metastatic cancer progression and treatment response in advanced disease states. The team’s initial work was supported in part by a TRANSCEND grant through the KI's alliance with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 

Bait and Switch for Targeted Immunotherapy

MIT News

October 19, 2017

Researchers in the laboratory of KI member Timothy Lu have been working to develop targeted immunotherapies to attack cancer cells. Through the use of customized DNA/RNA sequences, the team has designed a synthetic gene circuit that is activated by transcriptional signals expressed by tumor cells, triggering a combinatorial immune response. Their bioengineered "switch" requires two cancer-specific signals to be present before it turns on, making it more accurate than current therapies, and can also be customized to recognize and target different cancer types.

Hynes Receives National Academy of Medicine Honor

National Academy of Medicine

October 16, 2017

Congratulations to KI member and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research, Richard Hynes, for being named the recipient of the 2017 David Rall Medal from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Hynes was chosen for his leadership as the co-chair of the NAM/NAS Report Committee on Human Genome Editing. To honor his recent award, Hynes sat down with NAM to discuss his research, his inspiration for getting involved in policy work, and his thoughts on how to better engage public interest in science and medicine.

Heads Together for Brain Cancer

MIT News

September 28, 2017

Researchers from the Hemann, Lees, and Sharp laboratories joined forces in the fight against glioblastoma. Using a novel screen, the collaborative team identified PRMT5 as a protein involved in the tumors’ growth, and found that PRMT5 uses a special type of gene splicing to promote this growth.The researchers showed that inhibiting PRMT5 halted cancer cell growth in mice, and also identified a biomarker that could be used to predict which patients would benefit from treatment with existing PRMT5 inhibitors, at least one of which is currently in clinical trials for cancer. Their findings, described in Cancer Cell, help explain PRMT5’s poorly understood role in cancer and offer opportunities to improve current therapies and develop new ones. The team hopes to develop nanoparticles to help PRMT5 inhibitors cross the blood-brain barrier, and is also looking at PRMT5’s role in other tumor types.

This work was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund. Watch recent Lees Lab PhD recipient Monica Stanciu present this research as part of the Koch Institute’s SOLUTIONS with/in/sight: Fast-Moving Frontiers program.

New Academic Year Brings New KI Leadership

MIT Koch Institute

September 22, 2017

The Koch Institute is pleased to announce that KI faculty members Darrell Irvine and Matthew Vander Heiden have joined the Institute's leadership team as Associate Directors.

Irvine, Professor of Biological Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering, will step into this role to lead the Koch Institute's engineering initiatives and serve as a liaison with MIT's School of Engineering. Similarly, Vander Heiden, Associate Professor of Biology, will guide the KI's life sciences cohort and work closely with MIT's School of Science. With KI Director Tyler Jacks at the helm, Irvine and Vander Heiden join current Associate Director Jacqueline Lees, who has been an integral part of the leadership of the Koch Institute since its inception and of the Center for Cancer Research for six years before that. In addition to her continued involvment in all aspects of the administration, Lees will also continue to bring particular oversight to the 12 core facilities within the Swanson Biotechnology Center along with Sarah Farrington, Core Faciltities Administrator.

Dane Wittrup, who has served as Associate Director since the Koch Institute's founding in 2007, is stepping down from the leadership team. "I have very much enjoyed working with Dane in this capacity and thank him for his hard work and dedication," KI Director Tyler Jacks said. "I look forward to his continued contributions to the KI in the years ahead."

With fresh faces, new ideas, and sustained focus on representing our strengths in both engineering and life sciences, the 2017-2018 academic year is off to an exciting start at the KI!