 | Elimination Round
Horvitz Lab researchers discovered a trigger for cell extrusion—a mechanism for eliminating unneeded cells—and suggest that the process might provide a natural defense against cancer. In a study appearing in Nature, researchers found that in the worm C. elegans many of the genes necessary for extrusion are involved in the cell division cycle. However, as extruded cells enter the cell division cycle, they are unable to replicate their DNA and consequently experience replication stress. Collaborators’ studies of mammalian cells revealed that replication stress similarly drives the extrusion of mammalian cells and that the well-known tumor suppressor protein p53 plays a role in the extrusion of cells undergoing DNA replication stress. Because cancerous and precancerous cells commonly experience replication stress, the findings indicate that extrusion may be a tumor suppression mechanism. |
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Congratulations and Welcome!
Over the next year, the Koch Institute will welcome three new faculty members, all of whom will be appointed as assistant professors in the Department of Biology. Kristin Knouse, who will join the KI on July 1, uses novel genetic, molecular, and cellular tools to understand how tissues sense and respond to damage. Francisco Sánchez-Rivera arrives in early 2022 and will study genetic variation in the context of cancer using functional genomics, genome editing, single cell genomics, and mouse models. Yadira Soto-Feliciano will also join the KI in early 2022 and will study how protein complexes assemble on chromatin and how disruption of these molecular mechanisms lead to human diseases including cancer. |
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Hammond Named Institute Professor
Paula Hammond has been named an Institute Professor—the highest distinction bestowed upon MIT faculty members—in honor of her pioneering work in nanotechnology, her excellence as a teacher and mentor, and her leadership on issues of equity and inclusion. When the appointment takes effect on July 1, she will be the third Institute Professor in residence in Building 76, along with Bob Langer and Phil Sharp. |
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Soft Cell
A team of researchers including Roger Kamm demonstrated that metastasizing cancer cells soften as they escape through a blood vessel wall and enter a new site. The study, appearing in the Journal of Biomechanics, may enable the development of new drugs that disrupt metastasis by interfering with cell softening. |
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Learnt to a CRISPR
Few discoveries have accelerated biomedical research faster than CRISPR, the protein-based gene editing tool that allows scientists to precisely manipulate individual genes on a molecular level. Startup company KSQ Therapeutics, co-founded by KI members Eric Lander, David Sabatini, and Jonathan Weissman, leverages the investigators’ CRISPR-based technologies to decipher the role of genes in diseases like cancer and apply these insights to therapeutic development. |
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with/in/sight webinar: Unsung Research Heroes
Learn about three cancer-fighting innovations being developed by scientists and engineers across the Koch Institute as we celebrate the accelerative power of the Robert A. Swanson (1969) Biotechnology Center. This evening webinar on Tuesday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. includes lightning talks and a panel discussion. |
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KI Physician Honored
Congratulations to Michael Yaffe, David H. Koch Professor of Science and director of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, on his election to the Association of American Physicians. The AAP is a selective honorary medical society for physicians with outstanding credentials in basic or translational biomedical research. Yaffe, in addition to conducting research into cancer’s dysregulated signaling pathways, is a trauma surgeon and intensivist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Over the summer, he served as co-director of the acute care and ICU section of the Boston Hope Covid-19 pop-up hospital. |
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Eye on the KI
In conversation with MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield, newly appointed Koch Institute Director Matt Vander Heiden shared how he balances his excitement about the big questions in cancer research with the realities of his longstanding clinical practice. He also spoke about what the KI is doing right and where we need to go next. The event was presented as part of the KI’s tenth anniversary celebrations. |
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Redefining Endometriosis
The New York Times and NPR profiled Linda Griffith’s efforts to pivot the conversation around endometriosis from “a women’s issue” to “an MIT issue.” Founder of the first lab in the U.S. dedicated to endometriosis and a recently elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Griffith has developed uterine organoid models to parse the genetic and molecular networks at play in the poorly understood disease. |
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Virtual Tourism
Approximately 125 people signed on to Zoom during the Cambridge Science Festival’s 30 Days of Science to explore topics ranging from immunology to nanomedicine in the Hemann, Bhatia, and Birnbaum laboratories. Take your own tour of the Swanson Biotechnology Center’s Hope Babette Tang (1983) Histology Facility and discover how histologists turn tissue samples into science, creating slides for pathologists to diagnose disease states or for researchers to better understand gene function or therapeutic response. |
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