Koch Institute

“It’s an invisible layer that can provide a barrier, provide cosmetic improvement, and potentially deliver a drug locally to the area that’s being treated. Those three things together could really make it ideal for use in humans,” Daniel Anderson says.

New material temporarily tightens skin

“Second skin” polymer could also be used to protect dry skin and deliver drugs.

May 9, 2016

(Top) Stimulating the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) in adipose tissue transforms the tissue from fat-storing white tissue to fat-burning brown tissue. A schematic of the nanoparticle (bottom left) that MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers used to deliver angiogenesis drugs to adipose tissue. (Bottom right) The nanoparticles imaged by transmission electron microscopy.

Fat-fighting nanoparticles

New drug-delivery approach holds potential for treating obesity.

May 2, 2016

Winning team IllumiRNA (shown here) pitched an idea for a diagnostic platform that profiles individual cells in blood tests.

Method for earlier detection of leukemia wins $300,000 grant

Team takes home grand prize from Koch Institute’s unique research-grant pitch competition.

April 11, 2016

Researchers have created a new type of dual-sided pill that attaches to the gastrointestinal tract. One side of the pill sticks to mucosal surfaces, while the other is omniphobic, meaning that it repels everything it encounters.

Engineers develop a pill for long-term drug release

New tablet attaches to the lining of the GI tract, resists being pulled away.

April 6, 2016

School of Science honors staff with 2016 Infinite Mile Awards

March 28, 2016

Science art on display at the public galleries of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research

Scientific art lights up Main Street

Art and science converge in the public galleries at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

March 23, 2016

(Left to right) Miles Miller, Frank Gertler, Douglas Lauffenburger, and Madeleine Oudin in the Gertler Lab at MIT.

Why some tumors withstand treatment

Researchers uncover a mechanism that allows cancer cells to evade targeted therapies.

March 16, 2016

This image depicts the process of metastasis in a mouse tumor, where tumor cells (green) have helped to reorganize the collagen into aligned fibers (blue) that provide the structural support for motility. This helps the tumor cells to enter blood vessels (red), ultimately leading to the formation of metastases in other organs.

Paving the way for metastasis

Cancer cells remodel their environment to make it easier to reach nearby blood vessels.

March 15, 2016

Artist interpretation of a cancer cell dividing

How cancer cells fuel their growth

Scientists surprised to find amino acids, not sugar, supply most building blocks for tumor cells.

March 7, 2016

“Not only does the high-fat diet change the biology of stem cells, it also changes the biology of non-stem-cell populations, which collectively leads to an increase in tumor formation,” Omer Yilmaz says.

How diet influences colon cancer

Study ties high-fat diet to changes in intestinal stem cells, may help explain increased cancer risk.

March 2, 2016

Camilo Ruiz named 2016 Gates Cambridge Scholar

MIT senior will pursue advanced degree in computer science at Cambridge University.

February 29, 2016

Left: Lipid nanoparticles (carrying siRNA) are shown as they are transported inside cells using endocytic vesicles. Right: Gehrke's lab is developing a diagnostic for Dengue virus, a relative to Zika. The device shown, which tested for Ebola, has silver nanoparticles of different colors that indicate different diseases. On the left is the unused device, opened to reveal the contents inside. On the...

Confronting Zika

MIT's Institute of Medical Engineering and Science is on the front lines of efforts to diagnose and develop a vaccine against the emerging Zika virus.

February 23, 2016

Krishna Rajagopal, chair of the faculty and professor of physics, presents Tyler Jacks with the Killian Award.

Targeting cancer from many angles

Killian Award recipient Tyler Jacks fosters interdisciplinary, innovative cancer research.

February 12, 2016

Using a new protein labeling technique based on squeezing cells, researchers labeled the nuclear envelope protein LaminA with green probes and histone 2B with magenta. Using traditional protein labeling, they also stained microtubules red and a lysosomal protein blue.

Cell squeezing enhances protein imaging

Compressing cells allows delivery of new fluorescent tags to track proteins in living cells.

February 1, 2016

“This finding really excites us because it makes us think that this is a gene repair system that could be used to treat a range of diseases — not just tyrosinemia but others as well,” Daniel Anderson says.

Curing disease by repairing faulty genes

New delivery method boosts efficiency of CRISPR genome-editing system.