In Remembrance: David H. Koch (1940-2019)
MIT alumnus and MIT Corporation life member emeritus David H. Koch ’62, SM ’63 has died at age 79. Koch’s death follows a long battle with prostate cancer, first diagnosed in 1992. Koch has said his experience with the disease encouraged him to become a “passionate crusader” for cancer research. The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research stands as a legacy to that passion. His $100 million gift in 2007 enabled MIT to establish the Koch Institute and begin construction of its home in Building 76, where scientists and engineers work together under one roof in pursuit of powerful, new ways to diagnose, treat, and ultimately prevent cancer. |
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Immunotherapy It's no Ford Prefect, but this is one CAR-T that’s going places. In a Science paper from KI and Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine member Darrell Irvine and fellow immune engineer Dane Wittrup, researchers took advantage of the Irvine Lab’s hitchhiking vaccine technology to turbo-charge T cells. By stimulating engineered cells’ CARs (chimeric antigen receptors) inside the lymph node, the vaccine was able to activate and expand the population of tumor-killing T cells for a variety of cancer types, including solid tumors for which CAR-T therapy has previously proven ineffective. The technology has been licensed to biotechnology company Elicio Therapeutics and is expected to begin clinical tests within the next few years. So long and thanks for all the antigens! |
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Honor Roll
Congratulations are in order for these distinguished faculty members:
Angelika Amon, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research, was named to the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s 2019 list of Great Immigrants, Great Americans. Released every July 4th, the list celebrates naturalized U.S. citizens who “strengthen America’s economy, enrich our culture and communities, and invigorate our democracy through their lives, their work, and their examples.”
Stefani Spranger, the Howard S. (1953) and Linda B. Stern Career Development Professor, was one of seven researchers chosen as a 2019 Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research. Jacks Lab alum Michael DuPage and Hemann Lab alum Luke Gilbert were also selected.
Eliezer Calo, the Irwin W. and Helen Sizer Career Development Professor, was named a 2019 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.
Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, is the namesake for a new fellowship program endowed by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The Langer Prizes for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence award unrestricted grants of up to $100,000 to researchers in pursuit of “blue sky” ideas, with preference to those working in chemical and biological engineering.
David Sabatini, Professor of Biology and Whitehead Institute member, is one of three scientists awarded the 2019 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for their seminal contributions to understanding the critical cancer pathway PI3K. |
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Synergy Sleuths The Yaffe Lab developed a software program to solve a veritable whodunnit behind a surprisingly powerful new combination of cancer drugs. Analyzing gene expression data to track down the cellular pathways most affected by the drugs, their new tool revealed that both drugs targeted the formation of the mitotic spindle during cell division, rather than DNA pathways, as originally suspected. Their findings, published in Cell Systems, could accelerate the clinical use of these inhibitors for combination cancer therapy. The work was funded in part by the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, the Charles and Marjorie Holloway Foundation, and The Bridge Project. |
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Taris Touts Trial Success Taris Biomedical, founded by David H. Koch Professor of Engineering Michael Cima and Robert Langer, has made exciting headway in translating its approach to treating muscle-invasive bladder cancer. TAR-200 is an implantable device developed by the Cima and Langer Labs that continuously administers gemcitabine, a chemotherapy drug, for multiple weeks. First, Taris shared positive results from an ongoing study of the device alone, which suggest therapeutic benefit to both patients who undergo radical cystectomy and those unfit for surgical intervention. Two weeks later, the company announced the dosing of the first patient in a new clinical trial, in collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb, that combines the device with nivolumab, an approved cancer immunotherapy. |
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Killing Tumors with Cytokine-ness Immune cell signaling proteins, known as cytokines, are highly toxic—not just to tumors but, unfortunately, to healthy tissue as well. Wittrup Lab researchers are delivering cytokines directly into solid tumors and using the collagen-binding protein lumican to confine these cell-killing proteins within the tumoral space. Their strategy, described in Science Translational Medicine, leverages the protective layer of collagen produced by the cancer cells to prevent leakage of the toxic agents into the bloodstream and opens up previously-closed avenues for combination immunotherapy. |
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Community Highlights
Congratulations to Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine and MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine investigators Paula Hammond, Michael Yaffe, and Forest White on their recent award from Cancer Research UK to identify the best combinations of drugs to fight glioblastoma and deploy them into the brain using the Hammond Lab’s signature layered nanoparticles.
Ritu Raman, biohybrid design expert, inventor, and postdoc in the laboratories of Michael Cima and Robert Langer, was honored as one of MIT Tech Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35. Raman will also serve as a STEM role model for young girls in her capacity as a new AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador.
The Shalek Lab’s KI Image Award-winning team takes its cell-mapping technique across the ocean for exhibition in London. Their map of simian HIV infection landed recognition as one of 28 finalists for the 2019 Wellcome Photography Prize.
Chemical engineering PhD candidate and Graduate Women of Chemical Engineering co-founder Lisa Volpatti was featured on MIT News for her work with KI members Daniel Anderson and Robert Langer, her juggling skills (literally, not just figuratively), and her commitment to service within the MIT community.
Anna Sappington, an undergraduate researcher in the laboratory of KI faculty member Aviv Regev, works at the intersection of machine learning and life sciences. This profile on MIT News showcases some of her greatest hits, including her Marshall Scholarship, the Human Cell Atlas, TechX, the MIT dance community, and Animal Planet TV. |
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The Mighty Mighty Ketones Ketone bodies—molecules produced by the breakdown of fat—promote the regeneration of stem cells in the intestinal lining, according to new work from the laboratory of Eisen and Chang Career Development Professor Ömer Yilmaz. In a study appearing in Cell, researchers found that intestinal stem cells produced unusually high levels of ketone bodies, even in the absence of a ketogenic (high-fat) diet, and that these molecules stimulate the Notch pathway to boost stem cell production. Comparisons of diets in mice suggest that ketogenic diets may help repair damage to the intestinal lining, which can occur in cancer patients receiving radiation or chemotherapy. This research was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program through the Kathy and Curt Marble Cancer Research Fund, the MIT Stem Cell Initiative, and The Bridge Project. |
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Curiosity: A Tribute to Steven Keating
The Koch Institute notes the passing of Steven Keating SM ’12, PhD ’16, from brain cancer at the age of 31. As an ever-curious graduate student in the MIT Media Lab, it was an IDH mutation revealed by his tumor biopsy that first led him to the Koch Institute, where Matthew Vander Heiden and Bridge Project collaborators were using 2HG, an ongogenic metabolite produced by mutant IDH, as a biomarker to detect and monitor IDH-mutant cancers. In 2014, Keating spoke with Koch Institute audiences about his experience with cancer, his passion for data, and his advocacy work in patient access and open source data. |
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Unmasking Mutant Cancer Cells Researchers in the Jacks and White labs found that trading traditional bolus dosing for sustained, low-level dosing of heat shock protein (HSP) inhibitors increased the number of mutated protein fragments presented on the surfaces of tumor cells. Their approach, described in Clinical Cancer Research, could improve immunotherapy's effectiveness across more cancer types with fewer side effects and reinvigorate clinical investigations of promising HSP inhibitors. Foundational research for this project, conducted in the laboratory of late MIT biologist and KI member Susan Lindquist, was supported in part by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program. |
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Pub Crawl: News from the Research Journals Reminisce about summer fun with a refreshing flight of seasonal offerings from the journals: The Hemann and Walker labs recommend the compound JH-RE-06 to sensitize tumor cells to cisplatin and similar therapies by interfering with DNA repair pathways. (Published in Cell, covered by MIT News, and funded in part by MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine)
At a recent American Chemical Society meeting, the Hammond Lab announced a new skin patch to improve treatment of melanoma. (Watch press conference on YouTube)
Jacks Lab researchers are stimulating natural killer (NK) cells to boost the body’s adaptive immune response in lung cancer models. The work has been supported in part by Margaret A. Cunningham Immune Mechanisms of Cancer Fellowships. KI faculty startup company Dragonfly is anticipated to begin clinical trials with their related NK immunotherapy platform TriNKET later this year. (Published in PNAS)
The Bhatia Lab conducted an investigation of gold nanoclusters for in vivo disease monitoring, resulting in a highly sensitive color-changing urine test for tumor detection in mice. (Published in Nature Nanotechnology and funded in part by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine)
Two new studies from the Young and Sharp labs give a clearer picture of how specialized droplets called condensates may govern the transcription—or conversion—of DNA into RNA. In a Molecular Cell paper, researchers investigated the role these droplets play in regulating gene expression, while in a Nature paper, researchers examined their role in transcription initiation and splicing.
Researchers from the Traverso and Langer labs are making it easier for doctors to remove precancerous growths from the colon with a solution that transforms from liquid to gel within the tissue. (Published in Advanced Science and covered by MIT News)
The Regev Lab has developed a new cell-mapping technique, known as DNA microscopy, that combines molecular and spatial information to analyze interactions between genetically unique cells—including cancer cells—in complex environments. (Published in Cell and covered by MIT News)
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