July Bulletin
Issue 58
Community Notices | News | Jobs | Funding | Events
Community Notices
July seminar
This month's Marble Center seminar is on Monday July 19th (11am-noon, via Zoom) with a research presentation by Professor Angela Belcher, the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, and Head of the Department of Biological Engineering. The title of her talk is “Changing the optics of disease processes, diagnostics, and therapeutic interventions: real-time in vivo optical imaging for early detection.”
As a reminder, there will be no seminar in August.
Marble Center RFP
The 2021-2022 Marble Center RFP will be distributed to affiliated labs on Wednesday July 14th. Deadline for submission is Wednesday August 4th. Contact Tarek Fadel (tfadel@mit.edu) if you have any questions.
In the News
Community news!
Drs. Natalie Boehnke (left) and Ritu Raman (right) from the Hammond and Langer labs, respectively.
Congratulations to Dr. Natalie Boehnke for receiving the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, which funds the launch of independent research careers, and to Dr. Ritu Raman for starting her own lab as the d’Arbeloff Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT! Natalie and Ritu are postdoctoral fellows at the Hammond and Langer labs, respectively. They are both members of the inaugural class of Convergence Scholars (2018).
Elicio Therapeutics Announces Initiation of its Phase 1/2 Dose-Escalation Study in KRAS-Driven Cancers
Elicio Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, announced the initiation of AMPLIFY-201, a Phase 1/2 dose-escalation study evaluating the safety and preliminary efficacy of ELI-002, the Company’s therapeutic vaccine that is being investigated as a potential treatment for patients with KRAS-driven tumors who have minimal residual disease following surgical tumor resection. The trial will enroll patients with RAS-mutated pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), colorectal cancer and other solid tumors with KRAS and NRAS mutations. Read more…
Several inhalable COVID-19 vaccines move to human trials
(Excerpt from New Atlas) Alongside the ease of administration of a nasal spray vaccine there is a strong hypothesis suggesting delivering vaccines directly to mucosal tissue in the upper respiratory tract could offer better localized protection from infection. Dr. Darrell Irvine, a bioengineer from MIT, has been working on developing inhalable vaccines for several years. Read more…
Jobs
Director of Industry Engagement, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Boston University.
Reporting to the Associate Vice President, the Director of Industry Engagement, Engineering and Physical Sciences will be responsible for developing and implementing the University's Industry Engagement strategy for the Biomedical Engineering, Photonics, Engineering and Physical Sciences industry verticals, crafting meaningful and sustainable relationships with industry partners leading to increased investment in University research in alignment with corporate priorities. The Director will also work closely with the BU CELL-MET (The NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials) Industry Liaison Officer. CELL-MET is a multi-year federally funded Engineering Research Center working at the forefront of tissue engineering to build scalable, low-cost technologies for growing clinically significant cardiac tissues from cell-level building blocks to fundamentally change the treatment of heart disease. Read more…
Postdoctoral position in gene delivery, Cornell University.
The Shaoyi Jiang lab at Cornell University's Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering has one immediate open postdoctoral position to study immune responses mediated by adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors and other gene delivery carriers. The Jiang's lab works on both fundamental and translational research problems at the interface of materials and biological sciences, including zwitterionic and immunomodulatory materials, targeted drug delivery, cancer immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine. His group has close collaborations with researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell Center for Immunology and other academic departments at Cornell. For more information, visit Prof. Jiang’s website (http://jgroup.bme.cornell.edu). For applications, please send a cover letter and CV to Shaoyi Jiang (email: wa.postdoc@gmail.com).
Senior Scientist, Internal Medicine Research, Pfizer.
The Internal Medicine Research Unit’s goal is to build a world class research team of dedicated scientists committed to developing a deep mechanistic understanding of the metabolic pathways underlying disease pathogenesis. As a member of the discovery biology team, the candidate will be playing a significant role in the drug discovery process including ideation and hypothesis testing, identification and validation of therapeutic targets and disease related biomarkers. The key strategic focus area is identifying novel therapies to prevent or treat diseases associated with diabetes or the metabolic syndrome including NASH, obesity, renal disease and heart failure. Similarly, another interest is the treatment of syndromes of unintended weight loss, such as the anorexia/cachexia syndrome that often accompanies cancer or chronic disease. In addition, the individual will build and facilitate collaborations with partners in the academic scientific community, as well as within the larger Pfizer network. She/he will have daily interactions with a team of creative and innovative scientists, working collaboratively in a supportive environment to conduct rigorous scientific and drug discovery research. Read more…
Funding opportunities
| Funding Source | Grant ID | Deadline | Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) Impact award (pre-proposals) | W81XWH-21 | August 18, 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| NIH/NCI: Toward Translation of Nanotechnology Cancer Interventions | PAR-20-116 | November 18, 2021 |
