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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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Showing 411–420 of 582 stories

Sussing Out Susceptibility

MIT News

April 22, 2020

A team including Alex Shalek, KI member and recently named Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award recipient, is using gene expression data to identify specific types of cells targeted by the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. Their study’s results, published in Cell and reported on in The Boston Globe and the NIH Director’s Blog, could be used to guide future treatment of the disease.

This work was supported in part by the MIT Stem Cell Initiative. The team recently received an award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to study how cells in the airways of pediatric patients respond to SARS-CoV-2 and common respiratory viruses.

Faster, Cheaper, Scalable

MIT News

April 22, 2020

A small team of graduate researchers has returned to the Love Lab with a mission: generate and test preclinical materials to help develop an affordable, accessible COVID-19 vaccine for large-scale production on a lightning-speed timeline. Although there are efforts underway across the globe to manufacture vaccines in the hundreds of millions, billions of doses may be necessary. To address this gap, the researchers are deploying a strategy developed under a Grand Challenge for ultra-low cost vaccines and are now simultaneously testing their first candidate component for a vaccine and optimizing the manufacturing process. The concurrent approach allows the team to develop vaccine components with manufacturability in mind from the start and potentially compresses the timeline from benchtop to full-scale production.

Balancing Act

MIT News

April 21, 2020

MIT senior and former Anderson/Langer Lab researcher Steven Truong brings his experience as a biological engineering student home in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the resident biomedical expert in his immigrant family, Truong balances schoolwork with medical challenges, language barriers, and a pressing need to combat misinformation.

Turning the Peptide on Lung Cancer Detection

MIT News

April 17, 2020

The Bhatia Lab’s peptide-based nanosensors offer a non-invasive strategy for early cancer detection. In a study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers used intratracheally administered particles in combination with machine learning algorithms to accurately detect lung tumors as small as 2.8 cubic millimeters. Working with Jacks Lab collaborators, they showed in genetically engineered mouse models that their urine-based diagnostic could also distinguish between early-stage cancer and noncancerous inflammation of the lungs, which could greatly reduce the number of false positives in a clinical setting. Watch video.

The research was supported in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through a gift from Upstage Lung Cancer, and the Johnson & Johnson Lung Cancer Initiative.

Weight Loss and Pancreatic Cancer

Yale Cancer Center

April 17, 2020

Along with his former KI mentor, Jacks Lab alum and collaborator Mandar Muzumdar is a senior author on a study investigating obesity’s role in pancreatic cancer progression. The work, partly supported by the Lustgarten Foundation, appears in Cell and examines the effects of genetically-engineered and dietary induction of weight loss on tumorigenesis.

Improving Treatment for Liver Cancer

Medical Xpress

April 17, 2020

Anderson Lab technology plays a crucial role in the development of a new combinatorial therapy for liver cancer. In a study published in Molecular Therapy, the group’s lipid nanoparticles were used in conjunction with siRNA and chemotherapy to target key proteins involved in cell death, selectively killing cancer cells in animal models.

Community in Silico

Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Institute

April 14, 2020

Searching for ways to stay connected to the cancer research community while safely socially isolating? The Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center’s seminar series “Science:Connect” features leaders in cancer biology, immune oncology, and more four days a week at 12:00 pm EST. You can join live or watch past talks; look for KI faculty members Tyler Jacks on April 14 and Angelika Amon on April 16.

KI Alum Leads Testing in NIH Study

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

April 13, 2020

The National Institutes of Health launched an at-home blood collection effort to determine how many adults in the United States without a confirmed history of SARS-CoV-2 infection have antibodies to the virus. KI alum Kaitlyn Sadtler, now chief of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s Section for Immunoengineering, is the study testing lead.

Fate to the Clinic

Fate Therapeutics

April 9, 2020

Fate Therapeutics, founded by Rudolf Jaenisch, began its first in-human Phase 1 clinical trial, treating its first patient with FT596, a natural killer cell-based cancer immunotherapy engineered using the company’s induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) platform. They also announced a collaboration with Janssen Biotech, Inc. to further develop additional off-the-shelf iPSC-derived cell-based immunotherapies.

KI Labs Net Success in STAT Madness

STAT News

April 6, 2020

STAT Madness was aglow with excitement for the Belcher Lab’s SWIFTI fluorescent imaging system, which allows surgeons to find and remove tiny ovarian cancer tumors. Their bacteriophage-nanotube system won 70% of a record-setting 699,315 votes in the final round; however, it is the 40% improvement in survival in preclinical models that the team is most proud of. “We’re working on a problem that we feel very, very passionately about,” says Belcher. With a near-infrared eye on early detection as well, and a newly granted patent in hand, the team is courting a real slam dunk for ovarian cancer patients.

Cheers also to the Wittrup Lab, which made it to Round 3 with a “Velcro Vaccine” that binds cancer-killing cytokines to collagen inside tumors, preventing damage to healthy tissue. All in all, that's full court impressive!