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Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang holding the medal she won in the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition

Rhoda Zhang Wins 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition

MIT News

November 5, 2024

Graduate student Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang has won the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition in both the Graduate and People's Choice categories. With advisors Robert Langer and Ana Jaklenec, Zhang and KI postdoc Xin Yang are developing metal-organic frameworks and other safe, sustainable nutrient stabilizing materials to address global micronutrient deficiencies. They are also launching MOFe™ Coffee, the first iron-fortified coffee.

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MIT News

October 3, 2022

Bhatia Lab researchers engineered nanoprobes for real-time tracking of tumor progression and treatment response using enzyme activity. Mapping this activity to precise locations within cancer tissue identified populations of cells linked to the recruitment and formation of blood vessels, one of the archetypal hallmarks of cancer.

Taking aim at multiple cancer hallmarks, their nanoprobes could be used both in the laboratory and the clinic as a non-invasive but comprehensive monitoring tool. Armed with detailed views into fundamental biological processes, the team hopes to create therapies that can be delivered to patients to disrupt the interactions between tumors and their environments.

The work appears in Nature Communications and was supported in part by the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research, the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through a gift from Upstage Lung Cancer, the Koch Institute’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, and Johnson & Johnson.

LUADable Models

Genes and Development

September 29, 2022

The Jacks Lab developed new lung organoids for modeling lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), which comprises approximately 40% of all non-small cell lung cancer cases in the US. Derived from stem cells, organoids are mini cultured organs that provide the ease and speed of use of cell lines, but with improved physiological replication of disease progression. The lab’s approach, described in Genes and Development, provides a gateway to better understanding of LUAD as well as a powerful and flexible strategy for future cancer modeling.

Hynes Wins 2022 Lasker Award 

MIT News

September 28, 2022

Richard Hynes, the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research, has received the 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. A pioneer in the study of cellular adhesion, Hynes wins the award for the discovery of integrins, proteins that are key to cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in the body. He shares the prize with Erkki Ruoslahti of Sanford Burnham Prebys and Timothy Springer of Harvard University. 

BIG Congratulations

American Federation for Aging Research

September 28, 2022

Cheers to Ömer Yilmaz on receiving a 2022 Glen Foundation for Medical Research BIG Award! Yilmaz will use the award to investigate the molecular mechanisms of how the stromal niche regulates intestinal stem cells in aging and how dietary interventions can reverse some of these changes.

A Mind for Metabolism

MIT News

September 22, 2022

Alejandra Rosario, a senior at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey and MSRP-Bio student, spent last summer in the Vander Heiden Lab investigating how cells' access to nutrients in the brain contributes to the persistence of glioblastoma. Inspired by the possibility of impacting patient treatments through research on the fundamental biology of cancer, Rosario hopes to continue the work in an MD/PhD program.

Menu for Cancer Research

Chemical and Engineering News

September 17, 2022

Matt Vander Heiden spoke to Chemical & Engineering News about the complex relationship between diet and cancer. The conversation covers emerging research showing that precise nutritional approaches could restrict tumor growth or improve treatment response. While diet alone is unlikely to a cure cancer, Vander Heiden said “it can make a difference, and we need to do the studies to figure that out.”
 

Cancer Moonshot Lands in Boston

MIT Koch Institute

September 13, 2022

On the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s landmark ‘Moonshot’ speech, President Biden came to Boston to recommit the country to the Cancer Moonshot project. At the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Biden spoke of his determination to ‘supercharge’ the Cancer Moonshot project and highlighted many strategies for improving cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. Many of the innovations that he spoke of are deeply rooted in our research initiatives here at the Koch Institute. Koch Institute Director Matt Vander Heiden, who attended the event alongside many of our collaborators and partners, said he was most inspired by the goal to reduce mortality by 50% over the next 25 years: “While  President Biden’s goal is ambitious, it is in reach and should be done–our cancer patients and their families need us to bring our best and boldest thinking to meet the challenge."  

Bravissimo, Bob!

ABC News

September 12, 2022

Robert Langer won a 2022 Balzan Prize in recognition of his pioneering research in biopolymers and biomaterials, paving the way “for breakthroughs in the controlled release of macromolecules with many medical applications.” The prizes will be awarded by Italian President Sergio Mattarella in November in Rome.

Trace to the Primaries

MIT News

September 1, 2022

In rare cases, a cancer cannot be traced back to its tissue of origin using available diagnostic tools, leaving patients and oncologists few options for treatment. A new deep-learning approach from the Garg Lab may help classify these cancers of unknown primary by taking a closer look at developmental gene expression patterns, which are often revived or disrupted in cancer cells. Researchers trained the model on a map of correlations built from two cell atlases, one cataloging gene expression data for different tumor types and the other tracing various developmental trajectories for embryonic cells. The model, described in Cancer Discovery, can identify cancer types with a high degree of sensitivity and accuracy.

Faculty Fanfare

MIT Koch Institute

August 30, 2022

Congratulations to Angela Koehler and Ömer Yilmaz for receiving tenure from MIT. Koehler, whose laboratory builds chemical tools and methods for studying proteins that are dysregulated in cancer, is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Engineering as well as an Associate Director of the Koch Institute. Yilmaz is an associate professor in the Department of Biology. His work focuses on the effects of various diets in tissue regeneration, aging, and cancer initiation.

In other Biology news, KI member Amy Keating has been appointed head of the department. Her laboratory analyzes protein-protein interactions important for cell signaling and human health, including those implicated in cancer.