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Congratulations to Jessica Stark! She’s been named a 2026 awardee of the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Prize, which supports early-career scientists taking bold approaches to cancer research.

Stark studies glycans—sugar molecules on the surface of cells that tumors use to hide from the immune system. By decoding and disrupting these signals, she’s working to help the immune system recognize and attack cancer more effectively.

Read more about her work - link in bio.

What happened at the Koch Institute on Thursday night?
An event with a twist!

From pretzels at the reception to a pretzel-shaped breakthrough in the clinic, we heard the story behind INLEXZO™— and how an idea became an FDA-approved treatment.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for an evening of science, community, and a few well-earned snacks.

What happened at the Koch Institute on Thursday night?
An event with a twist!

From pretzels at the reception to a pretzel-shaped breakthrough in the clinic, we heard the story behind INLEXZO™— and how an idea became an FDA-approved treatment.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for an evening of science, community, and a few well-earned snacks.

What happened at the Koch Institute on Thursday night?
An event with a twist!

From pretzels at the reception to a pretzel-shaped breakthrough in the clinic, we heard the story behind INLEXZO™— and how an idea became an FDA-approved treatment.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for an evening of science, community, and a few well-earned snacks.

What happened at the Koch Institute on Thursday night?
An event with a twist!

From pretzels at the reception to a pretzel-shaped breakthrough in the clinic, we heard the story behind INLEXZO™— and how an idea became an FDA-approved treatment.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for an evening of science, community, and a few well-earned snacks.

What happened at the Koch Institute on Thursday night?
An event with a twist!

From pretzels at the reception to a pretzel-shaped breakthrough in the clinic, we heard the story behind INLEXZO™— and how an idea became an FDA-approved treatment.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for an evening of science, community, and a few well-earned snacks.

Join us on April 29 at 6 PM for Inside INLEXZO™, featuring Professor Michael Cima and alumna Karen Daniel, PhD ’09. They’ll share the story behind the development and FDA approval of INLEXZO™, a new bladder cancer treatment—and the pretzel-shaped drug delivery platform that made it possible.

Registration is open now - link in bio.

“I hope my work can provide clarity for patients and physicians, and empower them to be confident in their options for care,” Alex Tang says. He’s already well on his way to making that a reality.

A Goldwater Scholar and triathlete, senior Alex Tang balances a love of endurance sports and medical journalism with cutting-edge cancer research. His time as a student with Tyler Jacks and Michael Hemann studying combined immunotherapy and targeted therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer helped inspire his goal to advance precision oncology as a physician-scientist.

Read more about Alex - link in bio.

This 2026 KI Image Award winner snapshot "Celebrating More Starry Nights More Lives Shine Bright" shows human fallopian tube epithelium with a BRCA2 gene mutation, tinted in swirling blues and greens—like a scientific Starry Night.

Early ovarian cancer often begins here, with a higher risk in BRCA mutation carriers. The Belcher Lab uses high-resolution, label-free imaging and AI to search for the earliest signs of disease across all patients. The closer researchers look, the sooner they can detect these hidden changes—and the more lives can ultimately shine through earlier diagnosis and prevention.

Kudos to the research team: Huaiyao Peng, Peiyan Dong, Ronny Drapkin, Angela Belcher

See the rest of the 2026 #KIImages winners in our online gallery — link in bio.

#KIimages #sciart #kochinstitutemit #MIT #thisismit #massachusettsinstituteoftechnology #onlyatmit #aroundmit #research #science #engineering #biologicalengineering #chemistry #chemicalengineering #biology #cancer #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #lifesciences

This 2026 KI Image Award–winning snapshot, "Heads or Tails: A Genetic Coin Toss," shows how engineered bacteria use controlled randomness to diversify into distinct cell types.

The Voigt Lab programs randomness into living cells, harnessing chance binding of recombinase enzymes to DNA to create genetic circuits that partition bacterial populations into distinct cell types at precise, predictable ratios (shown here as a time-lapse colony). Individual cells permanently switch into green or magenta fluorescent-labelled states. The probability of a given outcome can be tuned from 5% to 96%, enabling engineered microbes to self-diversify into cooperative populations with applications from agriculture to medicine.

Kudos to the research team: Daniel G. Pascal, Olivia K. Rando, Arash Farhadi, Christopher A. Voigt

MIT Department of Biological Engineering, Synthetic Biology Center

See the rest of the 2026 #KIImages winners in our online gallery — link in bio.

#KIimages #sciart #kochinstitutemit #MIT #thisismit #massachusettsinstituteoftechnology #onlyatmit #aroundmit #research #science #engineering #biologicalengineering #chemistry #chemicalengineering #biology #cancer #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #lifesciences

Sweet details can reveal dark secrets.

This 2026 KI Image Award winner snapshot "Sugar Galaxy Exploration" shows circular immune compartments that come from human tissue, with healthy samples on the left and follicular lymphoma on the right. While the cells appear similar, their pattern of surface sugars (green) changes dramatically in cancer.

With a new imaging approach, the researchers can uncover abnormal sugar patterns found only in tumors. By studying this glycosylation, they reveal hidden signals that help cancer grow and identify new ways to diagnose and treat disease.

Kudos to the research team: Stephanie Yiu, Ankit Basak, Carolina Ortiz Cordero, Alex K. Shalek, Sizun Jiang, Richard Burack, Laura Kiessling

MIT Department of Chemistry, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, University of Rochester Medical Center

See the rest of the 2026 #KIImages winners in our online gallery — link in bio.

#KIimages #sciart #kochinstitutemit #MIT #thisismit #massachusettsinstituteoftechnology #onlyatmit #aroundmit #research #science #engineering #biologicalengineering #chemistry #chemicalengineering #biology #cancer #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #lifesciences

@mit_chem, @imes_mit, @urochester

This 2026 KI Image Award–winning snapshot, “Nuclear Invaders,” shows bacteria in the act of infiltrating the nucleus of a human cell.

Rickettsia (magenta) are bacteria that cause deadly diseases, including spotted fevers and typhus. They are some of the only bacteria known to invade the nuclei (black ovals) of the human cells they infect. Normally, cells protect their DNA by strictly regulating what enters nuclei—how do these bacteria get in? In this image, researchers saw bacteria entering human cell nuclei via large protrusions in the surrounding membrane (cyan). By studying this mechanism, they hope to devise better strategies to treat this dangerous pathogen.

Kudos to the research team: Hannah Kurka Margolis, Rebecca L Lamason

MIT Department of Biology

See the rest of the 2026 #KIImages winners in our online gallery — link in bio.

#KIimages #sciart #kochinstitutemit #MIT #thisismit #massachusettsinstituteoftechnology #onlyatmit #aroundmit #research #science #engineering #biologicalengineering #chemistry #chemicalengineering #biology #cancer #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #lifesciences

This 2026 KI Image Award winner snapshot "Shaping the Mould: Lessons from a Shapeshifting Fungus" shows the striking shape-shifting abilities of a fungus that can grow as both round yeast cells and elongated filaments.

The Lew lab is studying how cell shape flexibility contributes to an organism’s success in various habitats. Both the little, round (yeast) and large tube-shaped cells (hyphae) in this image are cells of the same fungus, Aureobasidium pullulans. This beautiful fungus grows all over the world: in oceans, on land plants, in salt lakes, in arctic ice, and even in house dust! It is also able to grow cells in a variety of shapes and divide in different ways.

Kudos to the research team: Clara Fikry, Daniel Lew

MIT Department of Biology

See the rest of the 2026 #KIImages winners in our online gallery — link in bio.

#KIimages #sciart #kochinstitutemit #MIT #thisismit #massachusettsinstituteoftechnology #onlyatmit #aroundmit #research #science #engineering #biologicalengineering #chemistry #chemicalengineering #biology #cancer #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #lifesciences

Big ideas. Tiny technologies. A decade of impact.

Join us April 9 as we mark the MIT Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine’s 10th anniversary with a special with/in/sight celebration. Director Sangeeta Bhatia, member Bob Langer, and alumni and collaborators will reflect on key advances and what’s next for cancer nanomedicine.

Register - link in bio.

Life is a constant flow of energy, defined by movement at every scale, which makes it difficult to observe without interference.

This 2026 KI Image Award winner snapshot "Stream of Consciousness"
illustrates how high-pressure freezing techniques overcome this challenge in neurons, instantly freezing cells while preserving their natural structure and allowing scientists to capture a clear snapshot of their inner architecture.

This electron microscopy image reveals the interior of a neuron, where membranes, organelles, and structural filaments remain intact and become part of a flowing river illuminating the basis of life.

Kudos to the research team: Giovanni de Nola, Abigail Lytton-Jean

MIT Koch Institute, Peterson (1957) Nanotechnology Materials Core Facility

See the rest of the 2026 #KIImages winners in our online gallery — link in bio.

#KIimages #sciart #kochinstitutemit #MIT #thisismit #massachusettsinstituteoftechnology #onlyatmit #aroundmit #research #science #engineering #biologicalengineering #chemistry #chemicalengineering #biology #cancer #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #lifesciences

This 2026 KI Image Award winner snapshot "The Jeweled Scaffold: A Programmable Drug-Eluting Coronary Stent" shows a 3D-printed heart stent, a tiny tube delivered by catheter to restore blood flow in a blocked coronary artery after a heart attack.

Colorful micro-cubes decorate the stent and act like mini pill boxes, each programmed to release drugs at different times. Drug release rates can be controlled by changing the material of the cube, allowing one implant to deliver multiple medicines in sequence to support recovery and regeneration in a smarter, more personalized way.

Kudos to the research team: Erika Wang, Xin Yang, Ke Cheng, Ana Jaklenec, Robert Langer

See the rest of the 2026 #KIImages winners in our online gallery — link in bio.

#KIimages #sciart #kochinstitutemit #MIT #thisismit #massachusettsinstituteoftechnology #onlyatmit #aroundmit #research #science #engineering #biologicalengineering #chemistry #chemicalengineering #biology #cancer #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #lifesciences