June Bulletin

Written By Tarek Fadel
 

Issue 93

Community Notices

Marble Center seminar (June 24, 4-5pm)

Next Marble Center seminar is on Monday June 24 (4-5pm, Whitehead Auditorium) with a research update by Dr. Binbin Ying (Langer & Traverso labs) on e-GLUE: Electroadhesive hydrogel interface for prolonged mucosal theranostics. Following the talk, we’re excited to host a hot topic on Science publishing in the age of generative AI by Dr. Jessica Miles, VP Strategy & Investments, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

(Left) Binbin Ying, PhD; (Right) Jessica Miles, PhD.

Register now: 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

Announcing Winners of the 2024 Marble Center Poster Symposium

On May 21, 2024, the MIT community as well as members the Industry Affiliate program at the Marble Center in Nanomedicine (IAMNano) participated in a poster symposium organized by the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine to discuss nano- and precision-based approaches for the early detection and treatment of a variety of diseases, including cancer. Fifteen research posters were selected for this event, representing 20 research investigators from various institutes and departments at MIT, the Koch Institute, the Broad Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Scripps Research Institute, Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, the Ragon Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, among many others.

The winners of this year’s poster symposium are:

  • Tamara Dacoba, PhD from the Hammond Lab for her poster on “Protein Corona Impacts Association and Trafficking of Layer-by-Layer Nanoparticles.”

  • Alice Stanton, PhD from the Langer and Tsai Labs for her poster on “Advanced Brain Mimicry In Vitro: 3D Immuno-Glial-Neurovascular miBrainPlatform.”

  • Y. Jason Zhang from the Love and Irvine Labs for his poster on “Vaccines Combining Sustained Antigen Delivery and Follicle-Targeting Improve Humoral and Germinal Center Responses.”

  • Qian Zhong from the Bhatia Lab for his poster on “Targeted granzyme B Delivery with Conditional Nanocarriers Induces Pyroptosisand Synergizes with Checkpoint Inhibitors in Immunological Cold Tumors.”

We are grateful for our wonderful panel of judges who helped us select this year’s winners: Drs. Alessandro Amici (FUJIFILM Life Sciences), Rosalind Firenze (MIT), Jay Godfrey (MIT), Melissa Lokugamage (Alloy Therapeutics Venture Studio), Jessica Miles (Holtzbrinck Publishing Group), and Miao-Chih Tsai (Stanford).

FDA details new 'platform technology' process that could accelerate cell and gene therapy approvals

(Zachary Brennan | Endpoints News) The FDA released a long-awaited draft guidance explaining how companies can win designations for platform technologies, a regulatory step that could speed up cell or gene therapy approvals based around common technologies. The document explains how the designations could help biopharma companies use prior data from the platforms, such as batch and stability data, manufacturing inspection results or nonclinical safety data “such that a product-specific assessment for specific, designated endpoints might not be warranted.”

FDA defines a platform technology as “a well understood and reproducible technology, which may include a nucleic acid sequence, molecular structure, mechanism of action, delivery method, vector, or a combination of any such technologies that FDA determines to be appropriate.” The agency outlined three specific criteria for what a platform should be, such as “essential to the structure or function of such drug,” and that it “can be adapted for, incorporated into, or utilized by, more than one drug sharing common structural elements,” and that it helps manufacture or develop more than one drug through a standardized process.

FDA pointed to lipid nanoparticle platforms for mRNA vaccines or gene therapy products, lipid nanoparticle platforms for different short, single-stranded or double-stranded oligonucleotides, monoclonal antibody platforms, and more as examples.

Jobs

Chemist, Artzi Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The Artzi Lab at Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women’s Hospital and MIT is seeking a laboratory-based chemist with a background in material science and/or polymer synthesis.
Join our interdisciplinary team of biomedical engineers, immunologists, and clinical investigators, in the development of RNA-based nanotherapies for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. An ideal candidate will be able to leverage their knowledge at the atomic and molecular level to help guide the development of new biomaterials and nanoscale technologies to enhance drug delivery systems. Read more…

Scientist, Bioanalysis and Immunogenicity, Sanofi. The Bioanalysis and Immunogenicity team within the DMPK department at Sanofi is searching for a (Sr) Scientist to join a team developing and running custom ligand-binding assays for research and development purposes. Assay applications will include pharmacokinetic (PK), immunogenicity (ADA) and biomarker (BM) assays in a non-regulated setting as well as oversight of transfer to and execution of assays at regulated labs for studies. The applicant is expected to perform and/or oversee bioanalytical and immunogenicity work packages such as method development, qualification, validation and sample analysis. Expertise developing custom immunoassays on platforms such as ELISA, ECL (MSD) and other state-of-the art systems is required. The successful candidate will possess excellent self-organization and documentation skills and will be expected to present and discuss their own scientific results and provide input to project teams. Significant onsite presence will be required to perform and oversee laboratory activities. Read more…

Funding opportunities

Events

 
Tarek Fadel https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtarekfadel/
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