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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 91–100 of 613 stories

STING Discoveries garner Michelson Prize

Michelson Medical Research Foundation

February 19, 2024

Irvine Lab alum Bingxu Liu PhD '23 (VII) has been recognized with the 2024 Michelson Philanthropies and Science Prize for Immunology for uncovering how the STING signaling pathway controls a variety of immune responses. In his prize profile he recounts how he became interested in science and, eventually immunology, before focusing on STING in his graduate research at MIT.

Clinical progress for hitchhiking cancer vaccine

MIT News

February 15, 2024

A cancer therapy vaccine shows promising results in Phase 1 clinical trials, provoking surprisingly strong anti-tumor immune responses in pancreatic cancer patients. Using technology originating in the Irvine Lab with support from Bridge Project and refined by Elicio Therapeutics, the vaccine hitches a ride on the protein albumin to the lymph nodes, where large populations of immune cells can be taught to attack cancer cells. The Phase 1 vaccine targeted two variations of the cancer gene KRAS. Elicio is currently testing a vaccine that targets seven KRAS mutants, and plans to address other KRAS-driven cancers, such as colorectal and non-small cell lung cancers.  

New initiative takes aim at women’s cancers

MIT Koch Institute

February 7, 2024

A new women’s cancers research initiative will pursue the ambitious goal of early diagnosis, detection, and interception of ovarian cancer and other intractable tumors. Led by Angela Belcher, Sangeeta Bhatia, and Paula Hammond, the initiative is supported in part by a gift from the Gray Foundation.
 

Bile duct cancer diagnostic wins AMA Grand Challenge

American Medical Association

February 6, 2024

Bhatia Lab alum Jesse Kirkpatrick won first place in the 2023 AMA Research Challenge for work developing a new diagnostic for cholangiocarcinoma—a rare bile duct tumor among the deadliest cancers.

An expansive view of glioma cells

MIT News

January 31, 2024

Using their signature expansion microscopy technique, Boyden Lab researchers have imaged human brain tissue in greater detail than ever before. In a study appearing in Science Translational Medicine and funded in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, the team analyzed patient samples of the most aggressive primary brain tumor, high-grade glioblastoma, and low-grade gliomas, which are considered less aggressive. They found that more low grade glioma cells than expected expressed vimentin, a protein that is found in highly aggressive glioblastomas, suggesting that some of these tumors may be more aggressive than previously thought. The researchers hope that this technique could eventually be deployed to diagnose tumors, generate more accurate prognoses, and help doctors choose treatments. 
 

Paula Hammond, 2024 Franklin Institute Awards Laureate

Franklin Institute

January 31, 2024

Congratulations to Paula Hammond, 2024 Franklin Institute Awards Laureate. Now marking the second century since its inception, the award has honored the most influential scientists, engineers, and inventors who have significantly advanced science and technology, including Nikola Tesla, Marie and Pierre Curie, Orville Wright, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, and more recently, vaccine pioneers Kizzmekia Corbett, Drew Weissman, and Katalin Karikó. Hammond wins the medal in chemistry for her "innovative methods to create novel materials one molecular layer at a time, and for applying these materials to areas ranging from drug delivery to energy storage."

Nancy Hopkins to receive 2024 Public Welfare Medal 

MIT Koch Institute

January 24, 2024

Congratulations to Nancy Hopkins, who will receive the prestigious the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal for “her courageous leadership over three decades to create and ensure equal opportunity for women in science.”  The medal is the Academy’s most prestigious award, established in 1914 and presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good.

KI Investigators Take Initiative in Biotech Competition

MIT News

January 24, 2024

The MIT Faculty Founder Initiative has announced 12 finalists for the 2023-24 MIT-Royalty Pharma Prize Competition, among them KI faculty member Jessica Stark, Charles W. (1995) and Jennifer C. Johnson Clinical Investigator Joelle Straehla, and KI alums Ritu Raman and Theresa Raimondo. The competition aims to support female faculty entrepreneurs in biotechnology and provide them with resources to help take their ideas to commercialization. This spring, finalists will pitch their ideas to a committee of faculty, biotech founders, and venture capitalists, who will select a grand prize winner to receive $250,000 in discretionary funds, as well as breakthrough science award and runner-up award winners, who will each receive $100,000.

Programmable mRNA Takes a First Strand

Wired

January 22, 2024

Strand Therapeutics, co-founded by Darrell Irvine, Ron Weiss, and Weiss Lab alum Jacob Becraft, is targeting tumors for immunotherapy by "programming" mRNA to allow  it to turn on only in specific cell types, at specific times, and in specific amounts. The approach aims to avoid the systemic toxic side effects that often accompany cancer therapies when they are delivered to off-target tissue. This spring, Strand will enroll patients in a clinical trial of using its cancer-hunting mRNA therapy to treat solid tumors. The trial will be the first time a programmable mRNA therapy is tested in people.

A Family Tree for Blood Cells

STAT News

January 22, 2024

The Weissman Lab developed a method, dubbed "ReDeeM,"  for tracing the ancestry of human blood cells and mapping a cell’s lineage to its current behaviors. Researchers hope that, by monitoring changes in human blood cells in real time, ReDeeM could one day be used to predict disease risk years before symptoms show up. The lab is applying the technique, described in Nature, to learn more about  blood cancers, autoimmune disorders, and the origins of certain types of blood cells.