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Cancer Solutionsscience + engineering = conquering cancer together |
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Volume 130: September 2024 |
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Fast track to healing could spell tumor troubleA new study from the Yilmaz Lab demonstrates the benefits and downside of fasting. While low-calorie diets and intermittent fasting are known to boost intestinal regeneration and aid recovery from injuries or inflammation, this study, published in Nature, reveals something new: it also leads to a higher risk of cancer in mice. Further studies are needed before forming any conclusion as to whether fasting has a similar effect in humans.
This research was funded in part by the MIT Stem Cell Initiative, the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, and the Bridge Project. |
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Welcome, Professor Henry!Over the summer, Whitney Henry officially joined the Koch Institute faculty. Henry works to uncover the molecular factors that induce a cell to undergo ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of cell death. Her aim is to develop adjuvant cancer therapies that target subpopulations of cancer cells that are highly metastatic and therapy resistant. |
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Progress for PanTher Following positive initial results, PanTher has received IND clearance to advance their absorbable drug-delivery film for treating pancreatic cancer to the next phase of clinical trials. PanTher’s approaches—based on their signature platform, developed in the Edelman Lab with support from the Bridge Project—provide continuous, high-dose treatment of potent therapeutics exclusively at the tumor site. |
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| Full STEAM Ahead in Cambridge!We're excited to join the 2024 Cambridge Science Festival, September 23-29! We’ll dive into lightning talks with new scientists, sustainable science fashion with local students, and hands-on learning with carnival games. This week-long celebration of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) is designed to to make science accessible, interactive, and engaging for everyone. |
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| Meet the 2024 Amon Award Winners
Congratulations to the 2024 Angelika Amon Young Scientist Award winners: Anna Uzonyi from the Weizmann Institute and Lukas Teoman Henneberg from the Max Planck Institute. Uzonyi explores RNA editing codes, while Henneberg investigates ubiquitin E3 ligase networks.
The MIT community is welcome to join us as they present their research at the Amon Awards ceremony on Thursday, November 14 at 2:00 p.m. with a reception to follow. |
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| Cancer Moonshot Boosts CisionVisionCisionVision, co-founded by Angela Belcher and former trainee and Convergence Scholar Jeremy Li, has secured up to $22 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Precision Surgical Interventions (PSI) program.
This grant, part of President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, supports developing advanced imaging technology to help surgeons visualize critical anatomy without dyes. |
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| Recognizing excellenceHighlighting the exceptional expertise and essential research role played by our Robert A. Swanson (1969) Biotechnology Center, members of the Peterson (1957) Nanotechnology Materials Core Facility staff were recognized with the 2024 MIT Excellence Award in the Innovative Solutions category. Congratulations to Margaret (Peggy) Bisher, Giovanni de Nola, David Mankus, and Dong Soo Yun! |
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| Primed for successCarmen Martin Alonso, a 2024 HST graduate, has been awarded a provisional patent for her liquid biopsy priming agents developed in the labs of Sangeeta Bhatia, Chris Love, and the Broad Institute's Viktor Adalsteinsson. Alonso’s priming agents make it easier to detect circulating tumor DNA in blood samples, which could enable earlier cancer diagnosis and help guide treatment.
This work was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program via the Casey and Family Foundation, the Bridge Project, and the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine. |
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| A SMART way to produce CAR T-cellsMichael Birnbaum and researchers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology Centre (SMART) have discovered a novel way to produce CAR T-cells for the treatment of cancer. The technology, which uses a microfluidic chip roughly the size of a pack of cards, could lower manufacturing costs for cell therapies and enable point-of-care CAR T-cell production in hospitals. |
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| How sweet it isBob Langer now has a chocolate named after him. Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium in Falmouth has introduced Dr. Bob's Dark Chocolate Maple Syrup Cream, inspired by his love of maple. Bob is a longtime regular of the shop — its old-timey feel and candy-filled shelves remind Bob of his favorite childhood candy store in Albany. |
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What we were reading last summerCatch up on research journal articles published while MIT was out on summer vacation: The Irvine and Wittrup Labs debuted an approach in Nature Immunology that aims to keep immunotherapy in the tumor by targeting a combination of cytokines to the CD45 receptor. In a PNAS study funded in part by the Ludwig Center at MIT, the Manalis Lab’s Teemu Miettinen combined imaging and physical modeling to reveal that cells prepare for division by smoothing out small wrinkles in the plasma membrane to gather it in folds at the cleavage furrow. The Amon Lab’s Allen Su also published in PNAS: a study supported in part by the Bridge Project showed that the gene RAD21 promotes oncogenesis and lethal progression of prostate cancer. In Nature Materials, the Traverso Lab identified microbial–material combinations for therapeutic applications that allow microorganisms to survive extreme storage and processing conditions. In a Nature Metabolism study, the Vander Heiden Lab showed that metastasized cancer cells prefer the nutrient landscape of their home tissue. |
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Every year, the KI Image Awards ceremony dazzles and inspires our audience. Here’s your chance to showcase your beautiful images of biomedical research. We welcome submissions for the 2025 Image Awards from MIT students, faculty, and staff until October 18. Learn more |
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