MIT researchers have found that tracking specific changes in the number of chromosomes inside prostate cancer cells might help determine whether tumors should be treated, reports Robert Preidt for HealthDay News. “Besides giving new insights into how prostate tumors form and spread, the chromosomal data might someday be employed clinically to inform risk stratification and treatment decisions,” Preidt explains.
Fast Company reporter Michael Grothaus writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a deep learning model that could predict whether a woman might develop breast cancer. The system “could accurately predict about 31% of all cancer patients in a high-risk category,” Grothaus explains, which is “significantly better than traditional ways of predicting breast cancer risks.”
WCVB-TV’s Jennifer Eagan reports that researchers from MIT and MGH have developed a deep learning model that can predict a patient’s risk of developing breast cancer in the future from a mammogram image. Prof. Regina Barzilay explains that the model “can look at lots of pixels and variations of the pixels and capture very subtle patterns.”
HealthDay News reporter Amy Norton writes that MIT researchers have developed an AI system that can help predict a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer and provide more personalized care. “If you know a woman is at high risk, maybe she can be screened more frequently, or be screened using MRI,” explains graduate student Adam Yala.
MIT researchers have developed tiny robots powered by magnetic fields that can be used to bring drugs nanoparticles from the bloodstream into a tumor or disease site in the human body, reports the Xinhua news agency.
Prof. Regina Barzilay speaks with NPR reporter Richard Harris about her work developing AI systems aimed at improving identification of breast cancer in mammograms, inspired by her experience with the disease. “At every point of my treatment, there would be some point of uncertainty, and I would say, 'Gosh, I wish we had the technology to solve it,’” says Barzilay.
Xinhua reports that MIT researchers have “discovered that lung tumors could hijack bacteria within the lung to promote their own survival.” As Tyler Jacks, director of the Koch Institute and the paper’s senior author explains, this research "opens up multiple potential avenues toward lung cancer interception and treatment.”
Boston Globe reporter Jessie Scanlon spotlights Prof. Regina Barzilay’s work developing machine learning systems that can identify patients at risk of developing breast cancer. Barzilay is creating “software that aims to teach a computer to analyze mammogram images more effectively than the human eye can and to catch signs of cancer in its earliest phases.”
MIT researchers have developed a new technique to measure cancer cells that provides insight into how certain cells respond to treatment, reports the Xinhua news agency. The findings could be used to help develop new drug targets, making current treatments more effective.
Prof. Angelika Amon, winner of a 2019 Breakthrough Prize, speaks with Nature about her reaction to winning the prize and her research investigating the consequences of a cell having the wrong number of chromosomes. Amon explains that that next big challenge for her work is to “figure out how these changes in copy number affect cancer.”
Prof. Angelika Amon is honored as one of the recipients of this year’s Breakthrough Prize for her work determining “how extra or missing chromosomes in a person’s genetic makeup can lead to disease,” reports Olivia Vanni for the Boston Herald.
National Geographic reporter Nadia Drake highlights the work of Prof. Angelika Amon, winner of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. “I’m extremely grateful to have been selected,” says Amon. “I’m the representative of all the people who work with me over the years, who this prize is really for—my students and postdocs and trainees, really, they are the winners here.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Eric Lander, president of the Broad Institute, argues for enabling cancer patients to become actively involved in cancer research. “Patients must have an active voice in decisions. Patient data should never be sold,” Lander writes. “Researchers anywhere should have rapid access to the de-identified clinical and genomic data, to ensure that anyone can make discoveries.”
Prof. Angelika Amon received this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her “contributions to finding significant solutions to curing human diseases,” while Profs. Chenyang Xu, Daniel Harlow, Matt Evans and research scientist Lisa Barsotti received New Horizons Prizes for “early-career achievements in their respective fields,” reports Xinhua.
Prof. Angelika Amon is a recipient of this year’s Breakthrough Prize “for her work on aneuploidy, irregularities in the number of chromosomes,” which could lead to a new understanding of cancer, writes Martin Finucane for The Boston Globe. Prof. Chenyang Xu, Prof. Matt Evans and research scientist Lisa Barsotti received New Horizons Prizes in physics, while Prof. Daniel Harlow received one in math.