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Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine Marks 10-Year Anniversary at MIT Symposium

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Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine Celebrates 10 Years of Innovation

On April 9, the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) held a symposium to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. The event took place at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research galleries, featuring presentations, a panel discussion, and an overview of the center’s history and achievements.

Background

Established in 2016 through a gift from Kathy and Curt Marble, the center’s founding faculty include:

  • Sangeeta Bhatia
  • Robert Langer
  • Daniel Anderson
  • Angela Belcher
  • Michael Birnbaum
  • Paula Hammond
  • Darrell Irvine

Achievements and Metrics

Associate Director Tarek Fadel reported that the center has trained nearly 500 researchers. Of these, 109 have become faculty members at 79 clinical and research universities.

"Over the past decade, the center and its member laboratories have trained close to 500 researchers. Among them, 109 have become faculty in 79 clinical and research universities."
— Tarek Fadel, Associate Director

The center reports that 23 startup companies have emerged from Marble Center laboratories, including:

  • Cision Vision
  • Soufflé Therapeutics
  • Orna Therapeutics
  • Matrisome Bio
  • Amplifyer Bio
  • Gensaic

The center operates programs including the Convergence Scholars Program and an industry affiliate program.

Statements

Sangeeta Bhatia, faculty director of the Marble Center, stated:

"Our purpose has always been clear: to empower discovery and community in nanomedicine at MIT."

She also noted:

"A decade in, we are seeing that vision materialize not just in publications, but in our community, our startups, and ultimately, in patients whose lives are being changed."

Matthew Vander Heiden, director of the Koch Institute, commented:

"Ten years ago, Sangeeta, Tyler Jacks, and the Marble Center community had a vision."

Panel Discussion on Translational Nanomedicine

A panel on translational nanomedicine was moderated by Susan Hockfield, professor emerita at MIT. Panelists included:

  • Noor Jailkhani, co-founder and CEO of Matrisome Bio
  • Peter DeMuth, chief scientific officer at Elicio Therapeutics
  • Vadim Dudkin, founding chief technology officer of Soufflé Therapeutics
  • Viktor Adalsteinsson, co-founder of Amplifyer Bio and director at the Broad Institute

Company Descriptions

Elicio Therapeutics uses a platform that harnesses lymph nodes to generate immune responses against tumors. The company's amphiphile platform uses albumin transport to deliver medicines into lymph nodes. It is currently in Phase 2 trials for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and colorectal cancer.

Matrisome Bio develops nanobodies that deliver payloads to the extracellular matrix of tumors and metastases. The company is currently testing radioligand modalities.

Amplifyer Bio develops priming agents for liquid biopsy that transiently slow clearance of cell-free DNA, enabling up to 100-fold more tumor DNA recovery. The company states this would be the first such approach in liquid biopsy.

Soufflé Therapeutics works on targeted delivery with receptor-mediated uptake using cell-specific ligands to deliver siRNA-based medicines.

Key Themes Discussed

Panelists addressed several challenges in translating nanomedicine from research to clinical and commercial applications:

  • Startups must focus on specific indications and clinical modalities.
  • Reproducibility during scale-up is critical.
  • Early consideration of manufacturability improves the path to the clinic.
  • Panelists recommended minimizing risk by leveraging established processes and chemistries.
  • Institutional collaborations provide access to researchers who can explore new directions.

Future Plans

Bhatia announced a new grant program, Integrated Nanoscale Sensing, Imaging, and Health Technologies (INSIHT), launching in June. The program is aimed at advancing imaging and sensing technologies for precision medicine.

Bhatia stated:

"The next 10 years will be defined by our ability to leverage insights gained at the nanoscale to push the boundaries of precision medicine. The Marble Center is in a unique position to do just that, as we evolve this incredible community at MIT to be a global hub for nanomedicine research."

The Marble Center plans to expand collaborations, leverage computation and other disciplines, and explore new disease indications.