April Bulletin

Issue 91

Community Notices

Marble Center Distinguished Seminar with Prof. Jeremiah Johnson (April 29th)

Next Marble Center seminar is on Monday April 29 (4-5pm, Luria Auditorium) with a presentation by Prof. Jeremiah Johnson, A. Thomas Guertin Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Dr. Johnson is also Associate Department Head, Department of Chemistry, and a member of several organizations at MIT, including the Program in Polymers and Soft Matter, the MIT Koch Institute, and the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard.

The Johnson laboratory seeks creative, macromolecular solutions to problems at the interface of chemistry, medicine, biology, and materials science. Materials synthesis is approached in an analogous manner to natural-products synthesis; an interesting target structure is chosen and a synthetic scheme is designed to access that structure as efficiently as possible. The targets are designed de novo from careful consideration of the specific needs of a given application and with a particular emphasis on function. The tools of traditional organic and organometallic synthesis, synthetic polymer chemistry, photochemistry, surface science, and biopolymer engineering are combined to realize the designs.

Register now for the Annual Marble Center Poster symposium!

The poster symposium will convene members of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and broader MIT community working on nano- and precision based approaches for the early detection and treatment of cancer. The event will be held at the Koch Institute Luria Auditorium. This will be an in-person only event, and will be an excellent opportunity to highlight collaborative projects in this area and get feedback from faculty and industry members.

Register here

Save the date: Annual MIT Koch Institute Symposium June 21, 2024

The 22nd Annual Koch Institute Symposium on Tumor Heterogeneity and Drug Resistance will take place on Friday, June 21, 2024. This year's speaker lineup features a robust array of experts, both internal to MIT and from external institutions around the US and abroad, representing multiple scientific disciplines and technical approaches that seek to better understand patient-specific variation in cancer progression and response to therapy.

Media and News

Bhatia lab research update: Detection of cholangiocarcinoma with protease activity probes (Jesse Kirkpatrick, PhD / Postdoctoral researcher and medical student)

Satellite Bio: Pioneering Tissue Therapeutics (Arnav Chhabra, PhD / Co-Founder)

“Standing for Freedom: Portraits of Scientists and Artists in Exile” on display at the MIT Koch Institute during the month of April.

Standing for Freedom is a photography exhibit that features portraits of scholars in exile from around the world. Created by Pascale Laborier and Pierre-Jerôme Adjedj, the exhibit highlights the work of the French organization PAUSE, which enables scientists in exile to carry out their work in French higher education and research institutions. Its installation at MIT will be the first showing in the United States.

The exhibit coincides with the launch of the MIT Global At-Risk Scholars Fellowship Program (GMAF). The GMAF pilot program is a semester-long, residential fellowship at MIT that launched in February 2024 and is hosting Ukrainian scholars for the next two years. Read about it in MIT News here. This event is co-sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies, Global MIT, and PAUSE. A full list of partners is available here.

Jobs

Associate Director, Office of STEM Engagement & Inclusion. The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard seeks a dynamic and strategic individual to lead efforts to diversify our scientific community. The Broad recognizes the impact of a diverse scientific workforce on discovery and innovation. Reporting to the Chief Equity Officer, the Associate Director will lead efforts to diversify our scientific community. This includes leading Broad’s Office of STEM Engagement and Inclusion (OSEI), developing and implementing new pathway programs for entry into STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine), and creating new recruiting processes and career development programs. Read more…

Scientist, RNA Formulations, Eli Lilly & Company. The Lilly Genetic Medicine (LGM) team is looking for talented and motivated scientists to join the Innovation Hub in Cambridge, MA before moving to the Seaport District in Boston starting Aug 1st, 2024. We pursue cutting-edge research in a highly interdisciplinary environment to enable the next generation of nucleic acid innovation. These technologies will expand the impact of our existing pipeline in small-interfering RNAs (siRNA) and our emerging pipeline in additional nucleic acid modalties. We work in collaboration with colleagues across Lilly Genetic Medicine and therapeutic areas (e.g., Neuroscience). The successful candidate will have a strong hands-on background in wet lab biology to support nanomedicine-related research including but not limiting to nanoparticle formulation, flow cytometry, molecular endpoints, bioconjugate chemistry, in vitro assays, gel-based characterization and cell-based assays. Additionally, they should be systematic and analytically-minded while embracing and supporting an open, communicative, and collaborative work environment. The scientist will collaborate with a multidisciplinary team to perform experiments to aid characterization and development of nucleic acid delivery strategies for the next generation of genetic therapies. Read more…