The White House announced that Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, is slated to receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in early 2013. Langer was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2006, and will have the unusual distinction of holding two such honors.  Langer is also one of two MIT Professors selected to receive the 2013 Wolf Prize.
National Innovation Award read more
Wolf Prize read more

Cleverly designed nanoparticles home to a tumor, interact with dysregulated cancer proteins and act as synthetic biomarkers, at levels easily detected in a patient’s urine.  The nanoparticles express several different peptides, which allows for the identification of specific types of tumors.  The biomarker amplification system could ultimately be used to monitor disease progression and tumor treatment response. read more
 

Institute Professor Phillip Sharp was recently interviewed by WGBH about the arrival of biotechnology that stimulated the renaissance of Kendall Square.  Construction of the Koch Institute, completed in 2010, has been part of the revitalization. read more
 

David Sabatini, a member of the Koch and Whitehead Institutes, and his research team showed that many cancer cells have high concentrations of a transporter on their surface that could be exploited to deliver lethal toxic molecules into malignant cells.  Monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1)  acts as a transporter of 3-bromopyruvate (3-BrPA), a potential cancer drug in clinical development. This strategy would take advantage of the capacity of cancer cells to import 3-BrPA, resulting in the selective killing of cancer cells without affecting normal cells. read more

The New York Times profiled the success of KI member Robert Langer in navigating the intersection of academic research and commercial industry. The Langer laboratory’s innovative ideas and discoveries have resulted in treatments and therapeutic devices to help a wide range of diseases including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and schizophrenia, along with 25 start-up companies and 811 patents.  read more

Paul Chang and his research team have discovered that the protein PARP16 plays a key role in the cell's response to unfolded proteins,  or UPR.  Since cancer cells accumulate many unfolded proteins and rely on the UPR to maintain malignancy, PARP16 could be a promising target for future cancer therapies. view video

Robert Urban, founding Executive Director of the Koch Institute, recently moved to Johnson & Johnson. He now leads the company's new Innovation Center, here in Cambridge, Massachusetts. read more

Institute Professor Phillip Sharp has been selected to receive the Hope Funds for Cancer Research Award for Excellence, recognizing his role in advancing innovative cancer research. Sharp will be formally honored later this spring. read more