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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 31–40 of 613 stories

Jetting Toward Needle-Free Therapies  

MIT News

November 20, 2024

Inspired by squids, Giovanni and his team have created a jet-propelled capsule that delivers large-molecule drugs, such as insulin and RNA, directly into the GI tract without the need for needles. This study, published in Nature, shows that the device is as effective as injections. It offers a promising alternative to conventional drug delivery methods, particularly for diabetes and other conditions requiring regular injections.  

Introducing the 2024-2025 Convergence Scholars

MIT Koch Institute

November 20, 2024

The Koch Institute is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 class of Convergence Scholars. Founded in 2017, the program is designed to enhance the career development of aspiring independent scientists with diverse interests across academia, industry, science communication, and STEM outreach. This year's scholars are Amy Lee (Langer/Jaklenec Lab), Jose Ortiz (Yilmaz Lab), Meaghan McGeary (Jacks Lab), Ranjan Mishra (Weinberg Lab), Yuang Chen (Anderson Lab), and Zhengpeng (Jason) Wan (Kamm Lab).

Lumicell lights the way to better patient outcomes

MIT News

November 19, 2024

Residual cancer cells can lead to costly and invasive additional treatments, drive disease relapse and progression, and worsen patient quality of life and survival. Lumicell has developed a cost effective, real-time imaging system for eliminating even single residual cancer cells during surgery and will greatly improve patient outcomes. Piloted with seed funding from the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program, the technology was FDA-approved earlier this year.

Bodyguard turns killer

MIT News

November 18, 2024

The Horvitz Lab published a study in Science Advances that helps resolve a longstanding mystery. The researchers reveal a surprising mechanistic aspect of the double life of CED-9, a protein that acts as both a protector and an killer in cell death in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, with a human counterpart linked to neurodegenerative diseases and cancers.

 A blueprint for better cancer immunotherapies

MIT News

November 13, 2024

Checkpoint blockade immunotherapies (ICB) work best against cancers where most cells express similar sets of targetable antigens. Most tumors instead comprise a variety of cell types and resist these therapies.

A KI team led by Stefani Spranger connected tumor antigen architectures to immune responses. Their findings, published in Journal for the ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, enabled the team to build an RNA-based vaccine that combined with ICB for effective tumor control in mouse models of lung cancer.

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.

ROS-y outlook for novel immune approach

MIT Koch Institute

November 5, 2024

Researchers in the Wittrup lab have developed an approach, published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, that uses reactive oxygen species-induced cancer cell death to help jumpstart anti-tumor immune responses and synergize with existing immunotherapies for improved treatment of many solid tumor types.     Reactive oxygen species are naturally occurring highly reactive chemical molecules formed from diatomic oxygen (O2), water, and hydrogen peroxide. These molecules act as biochemical switches that turn biological processes on and off, including certain cell death and immune functions.

Network news

MIT News

November 5, 2024

Using probabalistic networks, the Lauffenburger Lab built a computational method that will help make sense of the vast amounts of data generated by genomic, proteomic, and other research approaches. Deployed in a Cell Systems study to model tuberculosis vaccines, researchers are currently using the approach to examine the tumor's microenvironment and its response to different therapies.

Picture perfect

MIT News

November 1, 2024

Laura Kiessling and Edward Boyden have increased the power of expansion microscopy to the nanoscale, providing a cost-effective and accessible alternative to expensive super-resolution microscopes. The technique, featured in Nature Methods, is a single step, 20-fold expansion of tissue, rendering nanoscale features of cells—such as organelles or large proteins—visible with a conventional light microscope.
 

Dual defense against tumors

MIT News

October 28, 2024

Implantable microparticles engineered by Ana Jaklenec, Angela Belcher, and Robert Langer deliver phototherapy and chemotherapy simultaneously to fight aggressive tumors. Phototherapy, a newer therapy type, uses particles heated by a laser to target and destroy tumor cells while preserving surrounding tissue. In an ACS Nano study of mice, the team's microparticles completely eliminated tumors while reducing side effects from chemotherapy and significantly prolonging survival.

This research was funded in part by the Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellowship.