Join us on Sunday, Sept. 21st at the Cambridge Science Carnival! Stop by our booth, for Decoding Gene-ius, to uncover DNA secrets & explore how genes guide medicine. Full schedule of free events at cambridgesciencecarnival.org #CSC2025

Frame your science in a new light! MIT students, faculty & staff—submit your most striking biomedical visuals for the 2026 Image Awards Competition - winners will be included in our #KIimages exhibition. The deadline is October 10th. Details + entry form: ki.mit.edu/imageawards

Congrats to @MichaelJCima on FDA approval of INLEXZO™, a pretzel-shaped intravesical device for bladder cancer. First developed in the Cima Lab, it delivers chemo “low and slow,” improving outcomes for patients whose cancers resist standard treatments. buff.ly/Dce91KC

MIT and danafarber.bsky.social researchers: The Bridge Project is now accepting proposals for translational cancer research projects. Proposals are due by 10:00AM EDT Tuesday October 14, 2025. For more details: ki.mit.edu/bridge-RFA

Join us on Sunday, Sept. 21st at the Cambridge Science Carnival! Stop by our booth, for Decoding Gene-ius, to uncover DNA secrets & explore how genes guide medicine. Full schedule of free events at cambridgesciencecarnival.org #CSC2025

We mourn the loss of David Baltimore, founding member of MIT’s Center for Cancer Research, founding director of @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social & Nobel laureate. His leadership helped shape the KI’s culture of inquiry & collaboration. bit.ly/remembering-...

Deadline Sept 10! Apply now for BIOxAI @ MIT (Sept 17, 4–7pm). Pitches, panels, + networking across BIOxAI. We’re thrilled to cohost w/ MIT Hacking Medicine, The Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine & @csail.mit.edu. buff.ly/yQ1M9uA

Incredibly honoured and grateful to receive the 2025 Angelika Amon Young Scientist Award! Deep thanks to my supervisor @anirban-banerjee.bsky.social, friends, lab colleagues, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, and @iitbombay.bsky.social for their unwavering support. Simply Lovely.

Congratulations to Regina Barzilay - she's been named to TIME's 2025 TIME100 AI list! Her groundbreaking AI work includes the breast & lung cancer risk prediction models Mirai and Sybil, & halicin, the 1st AI-discovered antibiotic. time.com/collections/...

We’re thrilled to announce the return of #AICures2025 on Monday, Sept. 22! This year’s conference features a new workshop focused on providing a playbook for deploying AI tools in clinical care! Call for abstracts: forms.gle/mxtLqzD9aPy6... @aihealthmit.bsky.social

BIOxAI Startup Interest? Join us Sept 17, 4–7pm! Pitch your idea, connect w/ founders, & explore BIOxAI pathways. We’re thrilled to cohost w/ MIT Hacking Medicine, The Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine & @csail.mit.edu. Apply by Sept 10: www.nanomedicine.mit.edu/bioxai2025

MIT and danafarber.bsky.social researchers: The Bridge Project is now accepting proposals for translational cancer research projects. Proposals are due by 10:00AM EDT Tuesday October 14, 2025. For more details: ki.mit.edu/bridge-RFA

Congrats to Dr. Alice T. Shaw—the KI’s inaugural Clinical Investigator—on being named Chair of Medical Oncology at @danafarber.bsky.social. From her early days at the KI to her leadership in translational oncology, her impact has been extraordinary. mit-ki.org/4mdNzhV

Congrats to Sourav Ghosh (@souravsgw.bsky.social) of IIT Bombay & Kotaro Tomuro of RIKEN and The University of Tokyo - our 2025 Amon Young Scientist Award winners! They present Nov 6, 10 a.m. at the Koch Institute. MIT community & Amon Lab alumni welcome. buff.ly/nzhbwPp

MIT and danafarber.bsky.social researchers: The Bridge Project is now accepting proposals for translational cancer research projects. Proposals are due by 10:00AM EDT Tuesday October 14, 2025. For more details: ki.mit.edu/bridge-RFA

Congratulations to Alexandria Jefferson & her advisors - Tyler Jacks & Tobiloba Oni - they’ve been named to the 2025 cohort of the @HHMI Gilliam Fellows and Advisors!

Lights, Microscope Action! The 2026 Image Awards competition is now open. MIT students, faculty & staff—submit your most striking biomedical visuals for the 15th annual #KIimages exhibition. Details + entry form: ki.mit.edu/imageawards

Save the date: 📅 Aug 5, 2025 🕞 3:30–4:30 pm CEST Online #BeilsteinTalk “Next-generation drug and vaccine delivery for global health” with Ana Jaklenec from the MIT @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social#BeilsteinTalk Register for FREE! 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2wxahpff #DrugDelivery #vaccines #GlobalHealth #BeilsteinTalks

Save the date for next year’s KI Symposium on Thursday, June 18, 2026! Our theme will be diet & metabolism in cancer. If you were unable to attend this year's symposium or would like to revisit our program, you can now view the videos on YouTube: mit-ki.org/44f6cM3

Congrats to Margaret Billingsley on winning the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface! Margaret will pioneer high‑throughput therapeutic nanoparticle platforms to combat ovarian cancer heterogeneity. www.bwfund.org/news/bwf-ann...

We’re cell-ebrating the beauty of science! The 2026 Image Awards competition is now open. MIT students, faculty & staff—submit your most striking biomedical visuals for the 15th annual #KIimages exhibition. Details + entry form: ki.mit.edu/imageawards

Congratulations to Matthew VanderHeiden(@mvhlab.bsky.social‬),Tyler Jacks, and Forest White for receiving multi-year support from the Stephenson Global Scholar program to advance innovative research in pancreatic cancer. bwnews.pr/3Y5uZZQ

MIT and danafarber.bsky.social researchers: The Bridge Project is now accepting proposals for translational cancer research projects. Proposals are due by 10:00AM EDT Tuesday October 14, 2025. For more details: ki.mit.edu/bridge-RFA

MIT and danafarber.bsky.social researchers: The Bridge Project is now accepting proposals for translational cancer research projects. Proposals are due by 10:00AM EDT Tuesday October 14, 2025. For more details: ki.mit.edu/bridge-RFA

Save the date for next year’s KI Symposium on Thursday, June 18, 2026! Our theme will be diet & metabolism in cancer. If you were unable to attend this year's symposium or would like to revisit our program, you can now view the videos on YouTube: mit-ki.org/44f6cM3

The inaugural recipient of the Hope Funds for Cancer Research-Jane Coffin Childs Fund Fellowship is Dr. David Klawon in Tyler Jack's lab at the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social. 2/

That’s a wrap for the day on antibody drug conjugates at the @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social ! Awesome course on these complicated and exciting molecules (and their relatives)! Lots more exciting anti-cancer science to come 💊 #KIsymposium

We can’t wait for June 18,  2026. Theme: Diet, Metabolism & Cancer. Don’t miss out on the next #KIsymposium — sign up for our event emails: mit-ki.org/sign-up

Modifying chemistry of ADCs, such as through adding polar groups to increase lipophilicity is a separate approach that helps improve ADC pharmacokinetics and tolerability @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Different toxicities can appear with better linkers- indicating a need to better understand the biology of ADCs, as well as improve in other ways to mitigate this toxicity @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

With an unstable linker, side effects mimic those of non-ab mediated systemic treatment with the same drug and safe dosage levels are no different. Stable linkers improve this, safely enabling higher payload doses. TLDR; linker is critical! @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Michael Seganish closes out the day discussing what happens when an ADC payloads detaches, even when it’s supposed to, and gets into circulation instead of into its target cell. Spoiler alert: toxic side effects @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

A new challenge: what to do after development of resistance to ADC treatment- re-treating with a new ADC often doesn’t work. More to learn! #KIsymposium @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social

What biomarkers predict success on ADCs? 2 AI models work together to automate image analysis and identify tumor cells that are targetable by ADCs, defining a signature that can be used to identify strong patient candidates. @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Puja Sapra brings perspective on the evolution of the ADC field: much learned and much to be done in terms of improving targets, understanding why different ADCs work differently, and deriving novel combos for future use. @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Greg Thurber starts session 3 with perspective on the trajectory of ADCs in the clinic & in research- there's been a steady increase in approved ADC molecules for clinical use since early 2000s! @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Mouse models have taught lessons about how ADCs biodistribute + enter tissue which isn't always well- a challenge to be overcome. Higher/more frequent dosages don't always fix this, since there's a risk of toxicity with higher payload. @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Challenges remain: most ADCs don't reach the tumor and still circulate (though don't bind), and what does often doesn't distribute through the tumor well. How do we think about fixing? @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

With a smaller size and shorter half-life in the body than ADCs, they can get into tumors better, clear out of normal tissues more easily, while still being potent and specific @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Daša Lipovšek expanding today's discussion to include miniprotein radioconjugates, which link target-binding proteins with radioisotopes that can kill cells or be detected with imaging devices. This facilitates greater targeting and functionality. @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

We're kicking off our last session of the #KISymposium with insightful talks by Greg Thurber Puja Sapra & Michael Seganish!

Jeremiah Johnson's antibody-bottlebrush conjugates aim to enable loading more drug onto ADCs using hydrophilic sidechain linkers that stabilize more, larger, & combos of payloads. This opens doors to more options for ADC design across more contexts @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

Dane Wittrup's lab is innovating ADCs by designing linker-less ADCs, which can enable release of payloads that cells can then take up over time- enabling better and potentially more potent targeting @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

The Boyer lab optimized physically expanding cells and then imaging them in a 96-well plate format- reaching the resolution of higher-power instruments without the cost. Now ADCs at work can be observed! @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

We’re kicking off Session 2 of the #KISymposium at 1:45 p.m.! Our 2nd session will feature the KI's Laurie Boyer, Dane Wittrup & Jeremiah Johnson, & Daša Lipovšek of Aktis Oncology. Join us for a deep dive into the world of antibody drug conjugates! mit-ki.org/4jdKWuH

Thank you to our amazing sponsors for powering #KISymposium2025!  Sanofi, AstellasPharma, @milliporesigma.bsky.social, Pfizer, CanCollaborate, Qiagen, Window Therapeutics, @mofollp.bsky.social, @novartis.bsky.social

Last in Session 1: Timothy Lowinger discusses targeting immune pathways! STING agonism activates innate immunity, but it's important and difficult to deliver this only to tumor lesions. ADCs can bring the drug directly to the tumor microenvironment @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium

So much can be done with these models combining in vitro, mouse, and clinical studies- understanding bystander effects of ADCs, studying off-target toxicities, and even creating computer-simulated trials to predict what would happen in patient cohorts. @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social #KIsymposium