News

AI in Action 

Forbes

February 26, 2025

Assessing promise versus prudence for AI in healthcare, Forbes highlighted Regina Barzilay's research showing AI can reliably improve breast cancer detection rates by 20% without increasing false positives. In a recent interview with Cancer Network, Barzilay discussed how AI’s proven ability to improve cancer detection rates in both breast and lung cancer screening may eventually push for updates to outdated protocols.

Koehler to lead MIT HEALS

MIT Office of the President

February 21, 2025

Congratulations to Angela Koehler on being named director of the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (MIT HEALS). MIT HEALS was established last year to bring together researchers from across the Institute to innovate new solutions to urgent challenges in health care. Koehler will be joined by two associate directors: Department of Biology professor Iain Cheeseman and Department of Biological Engineering professor Katharina Ribbeck.

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.

Protein location prediction

MIT News

February 13, 2025

Inspired by AlphaFold, a groundbreaking tool for predicting protein structure, researchers led by Regina Barzilay and Richard Young developed ProtGPS, a machine learning model that predicts protein location based on the sequence of its amino acid components. In a Science study, the team demonstrated that ProtGPS can also predict how disease-related mutations change protein location as well as generate new protein designs targeted to a desired location.  

Seeing breast cancer in a new light

Microsoft News Network

February 4, 2025

Following FDA approval in 2024, Lumicell’s LumiSystem for real-time cancer detection is now commercially available in the U.S. Developed with early support from the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program, it reveals residual cancer cells during surgery to enable precise and efficient correction, improve patient outcomes and reduce the need for additional treatments.  

All signs go at Auron

Auron Therapeutics

February 4, 2025

Auron Therapeutics, co-founded by Matt Vander Heiden, announced that the FDA has granted Fast Track designation to its therapeutic candidate, AUTX-703, paving the way for clinical development including a Phase 1 clinical trial in acute myelogenous leukemia set to open this year.    

A brief history of cancer immunotherapy

Genetic Engineering and Biotech News

February 3, 2025

Ankyra Therapeutics makes an appearance in GEN’s short overview of the long history of cancer immunotherapy. A Velcro-like protein, first developed in the labs of Dane Wittrup and former KI member Darrell Irvine, anchors immune-modulating cytokines within tumors, improving precision and minimizing side effects.

Langer lauded for lipids

Camurus Lipid Science Foundation

January 27, 2025

Congratulations to Robert Langer for receiving the 2025 Lipid Science Prize from the Camurus Lipid Research Foundation! Langer was recognized for his groundbreaking interdisciplinary research developing lipids and polymers that have revolutionized biomedical applications from drug delivery systems to tissue regeneration.

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.

Be aware of the blob

Scientific American

January 21, 2025

Scientific American explains how the discovery of biomolecular condensates— blobs of DNA, protein, and other molecules—has changed our understanding of how cells carry out critical functions. Startups are working to turn new insights into new therapies, including Dewpoint Therapeutics, co-founded by Richard Young and Phillip Sharp to treat cancer and other diseases.