February Bulletin

Issue 77

Community Notices

February Research Seminar.

Next Marble Center seminar is on Monday February 13th, 4-5pm at the KI Luria Auditorium with a presentation by Prof. Loza Tadesse on “Machine learning enabled label-free live-cell optical identification.”

Dr. Loza Tadesse is the Brit (1961) & Alex (1949) d’Arbeloff Career Development Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at MIT and an associate member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. She received her PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University in 2021 and previously was a medical student at St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College in Ethiopia. She also did a postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley.

Tadesse’s research program at MIT develops next generation point-of-care diagnostic devices using spectroscopy, optical, and machine learning tools for application for extreme environments such as developing nations, military sites, and space exploration. Tadesse has been listed as a 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 in healthcare, received many awards including the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Career Development Award, the Stanford DARE Fellowship and the Gates Foundation $200K grant for SciFro Inc., an educational non-profit in Ethiopia, which she co-founded.

Following the seminar, please join us for a 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).

Science Surfaces Opens in the Koch Institute Public Galleries.

Science Surfaces, a capsule collection of student-designed body coverings and accessories inspired by the 2022 Image Awards exhibition, will be on display in the Koch Institute Public Galleries through April. The exhibition showcases the result of the inaugural Peers + Pros Project, a Boston Fashion Week creative learning initiative catalyzed by the Cambridge Science Festival and sponsored in part by Koch Institute.

In the News

Boston Magazine profiles Paula Hammond's tumor-targeting nanoparticles

(Simone Migliori, Boston Magazine) For many newly diagnosed cancer patients, chemotherapy drugs conjure thoughts of debilitating side effects, from nausea and fatigue to mouth sores and hair loss. That’s because chemotherapy is a systemic drug, which means it affects not only cancer cells but also healthy ones. Thanks to the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, though, that may not be the status quo for much longer.

Researchers there are exploring targeted drug delivery through the use of nanoparticles a few thousand degrees smaller than a single strand of human hair. Designed to circulate through the bloodstream, these small but mighty travelers can deliver a chemotherapy drug directly to a target cancer cell without disturbing any healthy cells along the way. In doing so, patients may be able to avoid some of the worst side effects of chemotherapy drugs while still effectively treating their cancer. Essentially, the nanoparticles are “engineered for selectivity,” says Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Koch Institute. “We’re trying to get cancer cells to love the nanoparticle and healthy cells to hate it.” Read more…

Targeted modulation of immune cells and tissues using engineered biomaterials

Targeting systemic lymphoid organs (excerpt figure from the review)

(Nature Reviews Bioengineering) Check out this review by the Irvine lab published recently in Nature Reviews Bioengineering! Dr. Parisa Yousefpour discusses recent advances in biomaterials-based strategies, focusing on targeting of lymphoid tissues, circulating leukocytes, tissue-resident immune cells and immune cells at disease sites. These approaches can improve the potency and efficacy of immunotherapies by promoting immunity or tolerance against different diseases. Read more…

Elicio Therapeutics and Angion Enter into Definitive Merger Agreement

(Wall Street Journal) Elicio Therapeutics, a privately-held, clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Angion Biomedica Corp (NASDAQ:ANGN) under which Elicio will merge with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Angion in an all-stock transaction. The combined company will continue under the Elicio Therapeutics name and will focus on advancing Elicio's proprietary lymph node-targeting Amphiphile (AMP) technology to develop immunotherapies, with a focus on ELI-002, a therapeutic cancer vaccine targeting mKRAS-driven tumors. Read more…

Jobs

Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Communications (nanomedicine).

Nature Communications is the leading multidisciplinary Open Access journal, publishing high-quality scientific research. To help us to build on the success of this journal, we’re looking for an expert in any area of protein biochemistry or molecular biology. Role and responsibilities would include: handling original research papers, and working closely with other editors on all aspects of the editorial process, including manuscript selection and overseeing peer review; making well-reasoned editorial decisions on submitted manuscripts in the light of expert advice; determining the representation of their subject in the journal; liaising extensively with editors at other journals in the Nature family and with experts in the international scientific community; attending conferences and visiting research institutions; commission and edit Reviews, and write Editorials. Read more…

Science Program Officer, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Science, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

CZI seeks a Science Program Officer to lead our work for DEI in Science. In this role, you will lead grantmaking in impactful basic biomedical science, with the specific goal of reducing disparities in academic science and in biomedicine. You will collaborate with external scientists and CZI staff to plan and execute these programs, with the goal of building a dynamic community of outstanding scientists whose work and example helps to change the culture of science. The ideal candidate will provide a diversity and inclusion perspective based on extensive lived experience in the scientific enterprise and a deep understanding of scientific research settings and science funding, and scientific leadership administration. You will collaborate with other CZI programs, and across CZ Science organizations, including patient-partnered rare disease research, neurodegeneration, single-cell biology, open science, and biological imaging in their diversity-focused work. Please note that CZI is not engaged in clinical trials, drug development, health care delivery, or health disparities research, but instead is focused on basic science. Read more...