December Bulletin

Issue 75

Community Notices

December Research Seminar.

Next open Marble Center seminar is on Monday December 5th, 4-5pm at the KI Luria Auditorium with a research update by Andrew Pickering of the Hammond Lab. The title of his talk is “Layer-by-Layer Nanoparticles for Local Drug Delivery to Glioblastoma." After the talk, we will host our next hot topic discussion led by Dr. Gil Covarrubias of the Hammond Lab on “Extracellular vesicles as central regulators of blood vessel function in cancer.”

Following the seminar, please join us for a holiday social with food and drinks (starting at 5:00pm). For those who prefer to join remotely, the Zoom link will be provided upon request (please email Tarek Fadel at tfadel@mit.edu).

Deadline for the GO NANO Grant Extended to December 16, 2022

The goal of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine’s Global Oncology Nano (GO Nano) Request for Proposal (RFP) is to support MIT investigators in advancing innovative ideas to solve global oncology challenges and support underserved cancer patients around the world. Funded projects will receive $100,000 (total cost) for one year. All MIT investigators are eligible to apply to this grant (deadline December 16, 2022). Any inquiries on the grant can be directed to Dr. Tarek Fadel (tfadel@mit.edu).

Research funded by the GO Nano RFP will leverage advances in miniaturized technologies to collaboratively address disparities and differences in cancer prevention, early detection, and care, while ensuring affordability and impact in low-resource settings.

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In the News

Strand Therapeutics, which opened a new lab in Fenway, is based on research that began at MIT a decade ago.

*Strand Therapeutics cofounders Jake Becraft and Tasuku Kitada in their company’s new lab in Fenway. The biotech firm is developing mRNA therapies for cancer.* ***Credit:*** *DOUG LEVY*

(Boston Globe) When Jacob Becraft addressed a bustling party of a hundred-plus employees, friends, and investors at his startup’s lab last month, he credited messenger RNA for bringing everyone back together in one room. His remarks carried a double meaning. Yes, the mRNA vaccines had allowed the large group to gather in person — not a mask in sight. But Becraft’s Strand Therapeutics is also one of several Boston-area startups buoyed by the success of the COVID-19 shots and hoping to expand the reach of mRNA medicines into cancer and other diseases. Becraft began working on “mRNA 2.0″ before the first generation of the technology had proved its worth. In 2013, he went to MIT for grad school, where he joined the lab of synthetic biologist Ron Weiss, who had pioneered the development of genetic circuits — DNA molecules that know when to turn genes on or off by sensing their surroundings.

Weiss had recently won funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Pentagon, to develop genetic circuits based on mRNA instead of DNA. It was a far-fetched project at a time when many scientists were skeptical that mRNA could ever be used as a medicine.

“The vast majority of people did not believe in it,” said Tasuka Kitada, who was a postdoctoral researcher in Weiss’s lab. A group helmed by Becraft, Kitada, Weiss, and MIT professor Darrell Irvine spent about six years thinking through all the possible ways to develop genetic switches with mRNA. Read more…

The Future of Engineered Immune Cell Therapies

Science is featuring a special issue on cell engineering with a review of future engineered immune cell therapies by Drs. Darrell Irvine, Marcela Maus, David Mooney, and Wilson Wong. The review covers current progress in treating human disease with immune cell therapeutics, emerging strategies for immune cell engineering, and challenges facing the field, with a particular emphasis on the treatment of cancer, where the most effort has been applied to date.

Women in Science: Perspectives from Ludwig Leaders

The report summarizes perspectives from women leaders of Ludwig Cancer Research—principal investigators, advisors, directors—about their lives, careers and views on gender-related issues. It features a perspective from Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia, who speaks on the importance of maintaining youthful curiosity throughout one’s scientific career, her long-standing advocacy for women as scientists and entrepreneurs, and making science fit her life—not the other way around.

Impact of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative on the U.S. economy: at least $42 billion in one year in revenue

(National Nanotechnology Coordination Office) Data from the 2017 Economic Census revealed that over 3,700 companies – with over 171,000 employees – self-identified as primarily being in the business of Nanotechnology R&D. In other words, they self-identified by using the NAICS code 541713, or “Research and Development in Nanotechnology.” These companies reported $42 billion in revenue and $20 billion in employee salaries. The single-year revenue figure of $42 billion in 2017 exceeds the cumulative 20-year NNI investment ($38 billion). Data from the 2022 Economic Census will be available in 2–3 years. Read more…

Jobs

Faculty Position in Cancer Bioengineering, The School of Life Sciences of EPFL (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne)

The successful candidate will join the faculty of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC); develop an independent internationally prominent research program in the broad domain of cancer research; commit to excellence in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and supervise Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows. We are looking for candidates with core expertise and experience in any bioengineering-related area, including but not limited to tissue engineering, synthetic biology, chemical biology, materials science, drug design, computational biology, and instrumentation development. Their future research proposal must have a strong cancer research focus. Read more...