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Luc7, the blue group of proteins, against a background of human cells.

Splice of life

MIT News

February 20, 2025

The Burge lab has discovered a new type of control over RNA splicing, a process critical for gene expression. Appearing in a new Nature Communications paper, their study sheds light on how this control mechanism can go wrong—and serve as a potential therapeutic target—in acute myelogenous leukemias and other diseases.

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Showing 1–10 of 613 stories

Anders Sejr Hansen wins Edgerton Award

MIT News

April 16, 2025

Congratulations to Anders Sejr Hansen on winning the Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award for exceptional distinction in teaching, research and service at MIT. The award recognizes Hansen’s remarkable productivity and passion for mentorship and career development for members of his laboratory.

Mapping Cancer's Ecosystem

MIT Chemistry

April 7, 2025

By treating diseased tissue as an ecosystem, Alex Shalek and team codeveloped MESA, a tool that reveals hidden interactions between cancer and immune cells. Their research, published in Nature Genetics, shows that when applied to a diverse range of cancer tissue types, including colorectal and liver cancer, MESA uncovered critical hotspots of cellular activity, offering new insights into disease progression.

Cellular sleuths decode T cell targets

The Scientist

April 1, 2025

Immunotherapy changed the landscape of cancer treatment by equipping T cells to fight tumors, but even when these therapies are effective, their exact workings can be a mystery. The Scientist recently highlighted Michael Birnbaum’s Cancer Grand Challenges team, which leverages artificial intelligence and structural biology to decode T cell receptor recognition. The team, which includes Brandon DeKosky and Regina Barzilay, aims to enhance immunotherapy precision and broaden its potential for more effective cancer treatments.  

The Mechanisms of Metastasis

Knowable Magazine

March 27, 2025

How do cancer cells spread? Knowable Magazine offers an accessible, in-depth look at metastasis and cancer metabolism, featuring KI director Matthew Vander Heiden. He discusses how his lab has shown that cancer cells thrive in familiar tissue environments, which may explain why primary tumors often metastasize to specific organs while avoiding others.

Crystal Clear Drug Delivery Solutions

MIT News

March 24, 2025

Giovanni Traverso and his team have developed injectable drug crystals for long-lasting, less painful delivery of contraceptives and disease treatments. A study published in Nature Chemical Engineering showed that the crystals released contraceptives at least twice as long as currently available injectable suspensions. Unlike other vehicles for longer-lasting release, the crystals do not require a difficult and painful large-gauge needle for injection.

Levine Behind the Scenes

MIT News

March 19, 2025

Stuart Levine co-leads the Robert A. Swanson (1969) Biotechnology Center’s Integrated Genomics and Bioinformatics core facility, bringing PhD-level education, expansive scientific and technological expertise, and hands on training opportunities to the table in support of researchers across more than 100 labs annually at the Koch Institute and MIT.

Levine and his team work with cutting-edge, finely tuned scientific instruments that generate vast amounts of bioinformatics data, and then use powerful computational tools to store, organize, and visualize the data collected, contributing to research on topics in cancer and beyond, from host-parasite interactions to proposed tools for NASA’s planetary protection policy.

Dual duty microneedles

Nature Materials

March 6, 2025

A new Jaklenec lab study published in Nature Materials demonstrates novel microneedle patches that can be applied to the skin to deliver mRNA drugs and store billions of bits of anonymous and reliable information. This technology could be used to enhance healthcare in low resource settings, while addressing critical challenges related to  reliability and privacy of traditional paper and digital database systems for patient information.

Science on the menu

MIT News

March 3, 2025

MIT hosted its annual “Breakfast with Scientists,” where some of the nation’s most talented high school researchers met with with leading scientific minds, including KI faculty members Amy Keating, Kristen Knouse, and Phillip Sharp. Student delegates were convened in Boston for the American Junior Academy of Science conference, held alongside the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.

Tardi-grade A science

MIT News

February 26, 2025

About 60 percent of cancer patients in the U.S. receive radiation therapy, which can have severe side effects. In a study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team led by Giovanni Traverso discovered that a protein from tardigrades (microscopic "water bears") can protect human cells from radiation damage, minimizing treatment side effects.

Solving the puzzle of immune evasion

MIT News

February 26, 2025

Stefani Spranger’s work is focused on uncovering why some tumors evade the immune system’s attack. For example, her latest research, published in Cancer Immunology Research, reveals that lung cancer cells expressing SOX2 can block CD8+ T cells, undermining checkpoint blockade therapy. “By understanding these resistance mechanisms, we can develop smarter immunotherapies to outmaneuver cancer,” says Spranger.