The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT ( ; also referred to as the Koch Institute or KI) is a

cancer research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate ...

center affiliated with the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) located in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The institute is one of seven National Cancer Institute-designated basic laboratory cancer centers in the United States. The institute was launched in October 2007 with a $100 million grant from

David H. Koch David Hamilton Koch ( ; May 3, 1940 – August 23, 2019) was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second largest privately held co ...

and the research facility opened in December 2010, replacing the MIT Center for Cancer Research (CCR). The institute is affiliated with 29 MIT faculty members in both the Schools of Engineering and

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

History

In 1974, the Center for Cancer Research was founded by 1969

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

Salvador Luria Salvador Edward Luria (; ; born Salvatore Luria; August 13, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an Italian microbiologist, later a Naturalized citizen of the United States#Naturalization, naturalized U.S. citizen. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology ...

to study basic biological processes related to cancer. The center researches the genetic and molecular basis of cancer, how alterations in cellular processes affect cell growth and behavior, and how the immune system develops and recognizes antigens. The CCR was both a physical research center as well as an organizing body for the larger MIT cancer research community of over 500 researchers. Financial support for the CCR primarily came from Center Core grant from the National Cancer Institute as well as research project grants from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

, and foundation support. The CCR research groups were successful in identifying

oncogene An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

s, immunology of

T lymphocytes T cells (also known as T lymphocytes) are an important part of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes A lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell (leukoc ...

, and roles of various cellular proteins. The CCR produced four Nobel Laureates:

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is a professor of biology at the California Institute of Tech ...

(1975),

Susumu Tonegawa is a Japanese scientist who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism which produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his w ...

(1987), Phillip Sharp (1993), and H. Robert Horvitz (2002). In 2006, President Susan Hockfield announced plans for a new CCR center to support and expand cancer research performed by biologists and engineers. A $20 million grant was made by the Ludwig Fund, part of

Ludwig Cancer Research Ludwig Cancer Research is an international community of scientists focused on cancer research, with the goal of preventing and controlling cancer. It encompasses the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, an international non-profit organization ...

, in November 2007 to support a Center for Molecular Oncology to be administered by the CCR. In 2007, MIT announced it had received a $100 million gift from

, the executive vice president of the oil conglomerate

Koch Industries Koch, Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiarie ...

. Koch graduated from MIT with bachelor's and master's degrees in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

and served on the university's board of directors since 1988. Koch survived a

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

diagnosis in 1992, previously donated $25 million over ten years to MIT to support cancer research, and is the namesake of the university's Koch Biology Building. The gift supported the construction of the estimated $240–$280 million facility, on the condition that MIT build the center even if fund raising fell short.

Mission

The Koch Institute emphasizes basic research into how cancer is caused, progresses, and responds to treatment. Unlike many other NCI Cancer Centers, it will not provide medical care or conduct clinical research, but it partners with oncology centers such as the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

's Cancer Center. The institute combines the existing faculty of the CCR with an equivalent number of engineering faculty to promote interdisciplinary approaches to diagnosing, monitoring, and treating cancer. The Koch Institute has identified five areas of research that it believes are critical for controlling

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

: Developing

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

-based cancer therapeutics, creating novel devices for cancer detection and monitoring, exploring the molecular and cellular basis of

metastasis Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spreading from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, ...

, advancing personalized medicine through analysis of cancer pathways and drug resistance, engineering the

immune system The immune system is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to bacteria, as well as Tumor immunology, cancer cells, Parasitic worm, parasitic ...

to fight cancer.

Affiliates

The Koch Institute is home to faculty members from various departments, including Biology, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, and Biological Engineering; more than 40 laboratories and 500 researchers across the campus. Koch Institute faculty teach classes at MIT, as well as train graduate and undergraduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows. The Koch Institute is affiliated with two current Nobel Laureates (Horvitz and Sharp), eighteen members of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, eight members of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

, five

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

laureates, and ten

investigators, and one

MacArthur Foundation Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

recipient. Notable faculty members affiliated with the Koch Institute include:

Building

The research facility is located on the corner of Main Street and Ames Street near

Kendall Square Kendall Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The square itself is at the intersection of the Main Street and Broadway. It also refers to the broad business district east of Portland Street, northwest of the Charl ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. The building is located opposite the

Whitehead Institute Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research institute located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. It was founded as a fiscally indep ...

and

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

and near the biology and chemical engineering buildings on the north-eastern end of MIT's campus. MIT broke ground on Building 76 in March 2008, a topping-off ceremony was held in February 2009, and the building was dedicated on March 4, 2011. The building was designed by Cambridge-based architecture firm Ellenzweig, which designed several other buildings on the MIT campus. The structural engineer was

LeMessurier Le Mesurier, LeMesurier, Lemesurier, Le Masurier and Le Messurier are variant spellings of a surname originating in the Channel Islands. Notable people with the name include: * Gerald Le Mesurier (1914–1943), South African flying ace of World Wa ...

. Designed to encourage interaction and collaboration, the building employs both dedicated lab space as well as common areas, and features a ground-floor gallery exhibiting art and technical displays related to biomedical research. The building includes facilities for bioinformatics and computing, genomics,

proteomic Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital macromolecules of all living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replicatio ...

s and

flow cytometry Flow cytometry (FC) is a technique used to detect and measure the physical and chemical characteristics of a population of cells or particles. In this process, a sample containing cells or particles is suspended in a fluid and injected into the ...

, large-scale cell and animal facilities for genetic engineering and testing, advanced imaging equipment, and nanomaterials characterization labs.

Activity since 2007

The KI remains funded by a NCI center grant as well as 110 fully funded projects. Research volume in 2017–2018 totaled $93.2 million. , notable grants include Mouse Models of Cancer Consortium, Integrative Cancer Biology Program, and the Centers for Excellence in Nanotechnology and Cancer. In 2011, scientists at the institute pinpointed a genetic change that makes lung cancer more likely to spread around the body and may help scientists develop new drugs to fight secondary tumors. In 2020, Alex K. Shalek, Christopher Love, Travis Hughes and Marc Wadsworth developed an updated protocol for the commonly used low-input RNA sequencing method Seq-Well, increasing output resolution by ten times.

References

External links

*
Interview with Tyler Jacks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch Institute For Integrative Cancer Research Cancer research organizations Cancer organizations based in the United States NCI-designated cancer centers Massachusetts Institute of Technology research institutes Medical and health organizations based in Massachusetts Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, David H. Koch 2007 establishments in Massachusetts