At the heart of nanotechnology is our ability to understand and control the fundamental building blocks of all physical things. In medicine, nanoscale approaches have empowered researchers to discover and apply new tools for detecting and treating a variety of diseases. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed that longstanding investments in nanomedicine as well as decades of foundational science in the field have enabled the ability to package RNA in lipid nanoparticles to deliver vaccines to patients with unprecedented speed.

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 new ideas to solve global oncology challenges and support underserved cancer patients around the world. Research funded by the GO Nano RFP leverages advances in miniaturized technologies to collaboratively address disparities and differences in cancer prevention, early detection, and care, while ensuring affordability and potential impact in low-resource settings as essential design components.

The Traverso lab was awarded the inaugural Global Oncology in Nanomedicine grant from the Marble Center. The project will focus on making RNA-based therapies more accessible by combining high-throughput lipid nanoparticle (LNP) screening and deep learning to predict the optimal stability for LNP-RNA formulations

2023 GO Nano Award Announcement

(Left to right) Dr. Ameya Kirtane, Prof. Giovanni Traverso, Dr. Alvin Chan.