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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 441–450 of 613 stories

Nothing to Sneeze At

Whitehead Institute

April 22, 2020

Sabatini Lab postdoc and pulmonologist Raghu Chivukula used cell culture and electron microscopy to unravel the mystery of a rare genetic mutation behind an unknown lung disease. His 2019 Image Awards winning image shows the “airway in a dish” that proved the foundational model for the eventual diagnosis.

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.