Five MIT researchers—Michael Birnbaum, Regina Barzilay, Brandon DeKosky, Seychelle Vos, and Ömer Yilmaz—are part of winning teams for Cancer Grand Challenges 2024. Each team, made up of international, interdisciplinary cancer researchers, will receive $25 million over five years.
Associate Professor of Biological Engineering Michael Birnbaum is heading Team MATCHMAKERS, comprised of co-investigators Regina Barzilay (Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health with MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health), and Brandon DeKosky (Career Development Professor of Chemical Engineering). All three are affiliated with the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.
By harnessing advancements in artificial intelligence, Team MATCHMAKERS aims to develop personalized immunotherapies for cancer patients. Currently, predicting patient response to immunotherapy is challenging due to the immense variety of T cell receptors in the immune system. T cells—these central players in the immune response—work by recognizing and latching onto protein fragments, known as antigens, on cancer cells, marking them for elimination by the immune system.
The MATCHMAKERS team plans to record data on T cell receptors and their target antigens to form predictive computer models of antigen recognition. Collecting data using simple clinical lab tests, they hope to design antigen-specific immunotherapies. If successful, this approach could transform T cell receptor recognition predictions from specialist lab activities to routine procedures. The MATCHMAKERS’ research is funded by The Mark Foundation, Cancer Research UK, and the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Seychelle Vos, the Career Development Professor of Life Sciences, is a co-investigator on Team KOODAC, which aims to innovate treatments for solid tumors in children. They plan to use protein degradation strategies to target previously “undruggable” cancer drivers. The team’s funding comes from Cancer Research UK, France’s Institut National Du Cancer, and KiKa via Cancer Grand Challenges.
Ömer Yilmaz, an affiliate of the Koch Institute, is joining Team PROSPECT in tackling the rise in early-onset colorectal cancers among under-50s globally. Their work will focus on determining pathways, risk factors, and molecules involved in disease development, harnessing support from Cancer Research UK, the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the Bowelbabe Fund, and France’s Institut National Du Cancer through Cancer Grand Challenges.
