December Bulletin

Issue 63

Community Notices | News | Jobs | Funding | Events

Community Notices

December Seminar

Next Marble Center (hybrid) seminar is on Monday December 6th, 4-5pm (KI Luria Auditorium), with a research update by Dr. Kaiyuan Ni of the Irvine lab on “Engineered Alum Nanoparticles for Vaccine Delivery and Cancer Treatment.” For remote access via Zoom, please register here.

Following the seminar, please join us for a Holiday social with food and soft drinks (starting at 4:30pm).

In the News

MIT Future Founders Initiative announces prize competition to promote female entrepreneurs in biotech

(MIT News) Despite increasing representation at MIT, female science and engineering faculty found biotech startups at a disproportionately low rate compared with their male colleagues, according to research led by the initiative’s founders, MIT Professor Sangeeta Bhatia, MIT Professor and President Emerita Susan Hockfield, and MIT Amgen Professor of Biology Emerita Nancy Hopkins. In addition to highlighting systemic gender imbalances in the biotech pipeline, the initiative’s founders emphasize that the dearth of female biotech entrepreneurs represents lost opportunities for society as a whole — a bottleneck in the proliferation of publicly accessible medical and technological innovation. Read more…

*Top row, left to right: Polina Anikeeva, Natalie Artzi, Laurie Boyer, Tal Cohen, and Canan Dagdeviren. Bottom row, left to right: Ariel Furst, Kristin Knouse, Elly Nedivi, and Ellen Roche.*

Reviewing the National Nanotechnology Initiative

The White House’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) met on November 29th to discuss various aspects of biomanufacturing, the Federal science and technology workforce, and the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Below is a short video of the 15-minute presentation from Dr. Lisa Friedersdorf, Director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (and our guest at last month’s Marble Center Hot Topic discussion) on the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, followed by questions from several members of PCAST, including Drs. Paula Hammond, Maria Zuber, and Eric Lander.

‘Start at the top’: Women in biotech on how to break down barriers in the industry

(STAT News) Agnieszka Czechowicz, Laura Shawver, and Sangeeta Bhatia speak with STAT reporter Kate Sheridan at the 2021 STAT Summit. Read more…

Robert Langer shares his secrets to success

(Forbes) Dr. Bob Langer is a chemical engineer, scientist, inventor and entrepreneur. He famously cofounded Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna. The MIT professor, who still regularly goes into the lab, has also founded more than 40 other companies. He holds around 1,400 patents and is one of the most published and cited scholars of all time. Read more…

Hyperspectral imaging captures spatial and spectral data of the human landscape

(Laser Focus World) Angela Belcher is determined to use imaging for diagnosis and to help resolve the problems of detecting late-stage cancers, particularly ovarian. She imagines systems analogous to (but less invasive than) mammograms, that can discover tumors at Stage 1 or 2, or possibly even sooner.

As the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and head of the biological engineering department, Belcher informs her imaging work with a background in evolving organisms, electronics, batteries, solar cells, and advanced materials. As a deep collaborator, she leads a team at MIT (The Belcher Lab) and is also an active member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Read more…

*SWIFTI system schematic of real-time near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence image-guided surgery for tumor debulking in ovarian cancer patients.*

Jobs

Staff Scientist, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office.

At the NNCO, staff scientist will interact with policy makers and scientists from the 20 Federal agencies involved in the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) as well as the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the President. Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize nearly every aspect of our lives. Staff Scientist will have the opportunity to experience the impact of this nanotechnology across many fields, disciplines, and application areas by participating in broad, high-level nanotechnology policy discussions; working with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the President, and with the 20 Federal departments and independent agencies and commissions participating in the NNI; and managing high-visibility interagency projects and planning national workshops. Contact Tarek Fadel to learn more.

Scientist, In Vivo Translational Immunology & Cell Therapy, Alloy Therapeutics.

The Alloy team is looking for a Scientist to join our team in Waltham, Massachusetts. Reporting directly to our Director of External Discovery & Innovation, you will work with the Discovery Services team to support functional characterization and pre-clinical development of antibody-based therapeutics and cell therapies, e.g.: effector cell engagers, chimeric receptors, and TCR-based therapeutics. You will be leading the design and implementation of animal models to support screening and evaluation methods for novel molecules and cell-based therapies. Learn more…