Lab news

Recent News

Laura and Ivan win Young Investigator Awards at the annual CHAVD Retreat!

2024 CHAVD Young Investigator Awards
2/2/2024 - At the 2024 Annual CHAVD Retreat, Young Investigator Awards were given to Laura (for her amazing work with NHP vaccine work with PET imaging) and Ivan (for his scaled up manufacturing of our lab's SMNP adjuvant, which led to the successful launching of the clinical trial). Congratulations, Laura and Ivan!

Darrell gives an interview on our exciting SMNP HIV vaccine adjuvant!

DarrellInterview_HIVvaxMIT News
12/21/2023 - Darrell gave an interview regarding SMNP, the HIV vaccine adjuvant that was developed by our lab-- 3 Questions: Darrell Irvine on making HIV vaccines more powerful

B.J. receives the Peter Karches Mentorship Award!

B.J. Peter KarchesKI News
11/28/2023 - The Peter Karches Mentorship Prize is awarded annually to up to four Koch Institute postdoctoral associates, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students or research technicians who demonstrate exemplary mentorship of undergraduate researchers or high school students in their labs. Thank you to Darrell and Ryan for nominating B.J., and congratulations!

Amph-FITC #11: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

2023_Amph-FITC_11
10/30/2023 - The eleventh meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was a Halloween Night where we discussed the classic "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"! With our newest member Riyam we got to spend a spooky fun Halloween with great Italian food!

Darrell gets elected to the National Academy of Medicine!

2023_Darrell National Academy of MedicineMIT News
10/28/2023 - Five MIT faculty, along with seven additional affiliates, are honored for outstanding contributions to medical research. This is a major milestone is a scientist's career. Congratulations Darrell!

B.J. wins First Place in the Lightning Talk Competition at the 2023 DEFINE!

10/18/2023 - B.J. was invited to take part in the 2023 Duke Engineering Future Faculty of Innovation and Excellence (DEFINE) Program, which selects 25 rising stars across all engineering disciplines in the US to provide a workshop on the academic career track. B.J. won first place in the 3-minute Lightning Talk Competition among the candidates!

Congratulations to Parisa, B.J. and Jason on winning the Best Poster Award at NanoDDS 2023!

2023_Parsia_BJ_Jason_NanoDDS
9/17/2023 - Parisa, B.J. and Jason were each awarded one of the 10 Best Poster Awards at the NanoDDS 2023 conference!

Amph-FITC #10: Storytelling Night

2023_Amph-FITC_10
9/5/2023 - The tenth meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was a Storytelling Night! Each of us got to share something new, fun, dramtic, or interesting from our pasts, and bonded over some delish potluck!

Parisa gets selected as a Rising Star in Engineering in Health!

2023_Parisa_RisingStarLink
8/16/2023 - the Rising Stars in Engineering in Health Workshop aims to educate, train, and empower the next generation of leaders in academia at the intersection of engineering and the biomedical sciences. Hosted jointly by Cornell University's Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering, and Columbia University, this two-day, in-person, interactive workshop will take place in September at Cornell University. Congratulations Parisa!

Amph-FITC #9: Edgar Allen Poe night

2023_Amph-FITC_9
8/7/2023 - The ninth meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was a Poe Night! The roster was The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher with some poetry Annabel Lee, A Dream Within a Dream, Eldorado, and The City in the Sea. Thanks to Alex for the tasteful selections and Ivan for the stroganoff with potato sticks!

Asheley is selected as a MERIT Emerging Leader!

2023_Asheley Emerging Leaders
8/2/2023 - Asheley was one of 14 Emerging Leaders selected by Memorial Sloan Kettering, and was invited to the MERIT Emerging Leaders Symposium to speak about her vaccine research!

Amph-FITC #8: "The Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett

2023_Amph-FITC_8
7/17/2023 - The eighth meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was on "The Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett. The British humour of the short novel was complemented with Korean food and some friendly game of ping pong!

Amph-FITC #7: "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

2023_Amph-FITC_7
6/26/2023 - The seventh meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was on "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. The book discussion was served with complementary Agatha Christie Bingo provided by Asheley!

Amph-FITC #6: "The Dead" by James Joyce

2023_Amph-FITC_6
5/30/2023 - The sixth meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was on "The Dead" by James Joyce. T.S. Eliot once called it one of the greatest short stories ever written!

Amph-FITC #5: "The White Album" by Joan Didion

2023_Amph-FITC_5
5/15/2023 - The fifth meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was on "The White Album" by Joan Didion. A book of essays that depict American culture, which was discussed over some very delicious international food!

B.J. wins Best Poster Award at the 2023 Mechanisms and Barriers in Nanomedicine Conference!

2023_BJ_ColoradoWorkshop
5/6/2023 - B.J. attended the 2023 Mechanisms and Barriers in Nanomedicine Conference held at the University of Colorado, where she presented on her work regarding the role of the innate immunity in repRNA vaccines. She won the Best Poster Award and gave a very well-received lightning talk!

Congratulations to Asheley on being awarded the NIH T32 grant!

2023_Asheley_T32
4/20/2023 - Asheley won the T32 Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award! Asheley will be working on two lymph node-targeted approaches to improve HIV vaccines: selectively deleting off-target B cells in germinal centers using antigen-drug conjugates, or extending antigen availability by adding a velcro-like domain to HIV antigens. Congratulations Asheley!

Amph-FITC #4: "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi

2023_Amph-FITC_4
4/10/2023 - The fourth meeting of Amph-FITC (the Irvana bookclub) was on "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi. A very somber non-fictional biography by a neurosurgeon that was posthumously published after a battle against lung cancer. It certainly moved us to work hard on developing more effective cancer therapies!

Spring has come! And so has Darrell the Easter Bunny!

2023_Mural_EasterDarrellBunny
3/16/2023 - The second Irvana masterpiece has arrived... in the form of Darrell the Easter Bunny! Come to the Irvine Lab to have some Darrelled Eggs and for some Eggsciting research!

Amph-FITC #3: "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer

2023_Amph-FITC_3
3/6/2023 - Amph-FITC (the Irvine lab book club) met for its third discussion, this time diving into the native American science/magic of "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Coupled with the book-inspired dishes that Anna amazingly prepared, the night was filled with much heartfelt discussions!

Amph-FITC #2: "Annihilation" by Jeff VanderMeer

2023_Amph-FITC_2
1/23/2023 - Amph-FITC (the Irvine lab book club) met for its second discussion, this time on "Annihilation" by Jeff VanderMeer. The book opened with many questions about what is going on with everyone and everything... and ended with a gazillion more questions... much like how our research tends to go!

B.J. and Anna present their amazing research at GRC RNA Nanotechnology!

2023_GRC RNA Nanotechnology
1/7/2023 - B.J. and Anna attended the 2023 GRC RNA Nanotechnology, which was held in Ventura, CA. They presented their works at the GRS and GRC both for oral talks and poster presentations. They also ate great food and met great colleagues. Yay!

Inaugural meeting of the Amph-FITC (the Irvine Lab bookclub): "Notes from Underground" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

2022_AmphFITC_1
12/12/2022 - Alex took the initiative in creating the Association of Mastering the Perception of the High-Falutin Irvana Tome Collection (Amph-FITC)... which is basically the Irvine Lab book club. As the founder of this club, Alex chose the first book to be read and discussed: "Note from Underground" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Amph-FITC got together with some yummy homemade white bean soup and cinnamon swirls and discussed some deep underground stuff, I'm guessing.

Irvine lab White Elephant filled with loony loots!

2022_WhiteElephant
12/9/2022 - Many fun gifts were exchanged at the 2022 Irvine Lab White Elephant! Along with some fresh off the grill homemade meatballs from Asheley and the best vin chaude ever made from Laura, there was sizzling competition over one mystery gift labeled "Not a Gift"...

Ho-ho-ho! Irvana Christmas mural is up!

2022_Mural_Christmas Darrell
11/21/2022 - Alex, Sydney, Anna, B.J. and Bill worked their artistic magic to bring some Christmas joy to MIT... in the form of Santa Irvine and a Christmas tree decked with immune cells and nanoparticles! Let us all sing a Christmas Darrell!

Thanksgiving potluck with Irvine lab and friends!

2022_Thanksgiving_potluck
11/21/2022 - Irvine lab had a great Thanksgiving potluck! Thank you for all who came and enjoyed the delicious spread, as well as those who prepared and brought all of the food and drinks!

Alex crushes his talk at the Danaher-Marble symposium!

2022_Alex_Danaher-MarbleSymposium
11/14/2022 - Alex presented a comprehensive talk on the Irvine lab's efforts to develop CAR T therapy against solid tumors. He gave an awesome finale to a great day of talks!

B.J. becomes a Convergence Scholar!

2022_BJ_ConvergenceScholar
11/10/2022 - The Convergence Scholars Program (CSP) aims at cultivating in postdoctoral trainees an integrative vision of science and technology. CSP will provide postdoctoral trainees with opportunities to further their experiences and skills beyond the research laboratory space.

Anna presents her poster to a big crowd at KI retreat!

2022_Anna_KI_Retreat_poster
10/18/2022 - Anna presented her work on DNA origami nanoparticles on Day 1 of the Koch Institute retreat. Her poster garnered great interest and enthusiasm from the KI community, as well as a creepily familiar stalker out the window...

Laura finishes her year-long service to MIT PDA as Vice President with a bang!

2022_PDA_Laura
9/19/2022 - At the 2022 MIT Postdoc Appreciation Luncheon, Laura received a certificate of recognition for her significant contributions to the MIT postdoctoral community after serving as Vice President of MIT's Postdoctoral Association (PDA) for the 2021-2022 year. Thank you Laura!

Kristen and Ivan get awarded prestigious graduate fellowships!

7/28/2022 - Kristen won the IMES Graduate/Ralph G. (1970) and Claire Brindis Family Fellowship and Ivan was awarded the NCI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition (F99/K00) Award for his project “Engineering Next-Generation Nanoparticles One Layer at a Time”

Kristen wins the Poster Award at the GRC Immunogengineering 2022!

2022_GRCposterAward_Kristen
7/15/2022 - The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) for Immunogengineering was held from 7/10-7/15/2022 in Ventura, California. Kristen was one of the top poster presenters to be awarded from 125 candidates!

The First Irvine Lab Bagel-off Concludes with Roaring Success!

2022_BagelOff
7/1/2022 - Alex, Coralie, and Sydney organized the Best Bread Loop in the Greater Boston Area (BBLGBA) competition with four manufacturers, three flavors, one exit poll. And the inaugural Best Bread Loop in the Greater Boston Area goes to... Bagelsaurus!

Anna passes her PhD quals with flying colors!

2022_AnnaQualsPass
6/13/2022 - Anna has passed her PhD qualifying exams and is now a PhD candidate!

Alex receives the MIT Presidential Graduate Fellowship Award!

2022_AlexGradFellowship
5/20/2022 - Alex won the MIT Presidential Graduate Fellowship Award! Webmaster's journalistic passion was able to come to a deal with Alex's camera-shy nature for a nice solid back shot.

Parisa wins poster award at the KI Nanomedicine Symposium!

2022_ParisaPosterKINanomedicine
Link to twitter

5/17/2022 - Parisa won a poster award at the 2022 Koch Institute Nanomedicine Symposium.

Sasan's work on microneedles gets coverage from MIT Spectrum!

2022_SasanMITSpectrumNews
Link to article

Darrell and Sasan gave interviews to MIT Spectrum for their article on our long-standing Irvine-Hammond collaborative effort on developing microneedles for immunotherapeutic applications.

Coralie and Kaiyuan selected as 2022 Future Faculty Scholars!

2022_Coralie+Kaiyuan_PMSE
2022 Future Faculty Scholars

Coralie and Kaiyuan have been selected as the 2022 Future Faculty Scholars. They will present at the annual PMSE symposium (during the Fall National Meeting of the American Chemical Society), which highlights and provides a forum for postdocs working in polymeric materials that are applying to academic positions during that year. Congratulations Coralie and Kaiyuan!

Parisa and Sasan are awarded postdoctoral fellowships!

2022_Parisa+Sasan_Fellowship
2022 Ludwig Postdoctoral Fellows

Parisa and Sasan have been selected as the 2022 Ludwig Postdoctoral Fellows, and Parisa has additionally been awarded the NIH F32 fellowship. Congratulations Parisa and Sasan!

Irvine lab work targeted cancer immunotherapy eliminates tumors in mice, with minimal side effects

2022 MIT New_Yash
News Highlight

MIT News reported on work led by graduate student, Yash Agarwal, that was recently published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Congratulations, Yash!

Coralie wins the Peter Karches Mentorship Prize at the 2021 KI Retreat!

2021 KI Retreat Mentorship Award2021 Peter Karches Mentorship Prize
The Koch Institute (KI) Fall Retreat is an annual event comprised of great scientific talks, poster presentations, and social activities, and is one of the major community-building experiences for KI members to learn about what's going on at the KI and mix and mingle with faculty, researchers and trainees in a casual yet energizing environment.

Sachin wins NCI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition (F99/K00) Award!

Sachin F99
News Highlight

Sachin won the National Cancer Institute Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition (F99/K00) Award. He is the first student at MIT to receive the award!

Heikyung celebrates 30 years of service with Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)!

Heikyung HHMI 30y
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Heikyung's amazing services with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We are very grateful to have had her wonderful presence in our lab for even just a small part of her long tenure!

Darrell receives ASPIRE Award from the Mark Foundation!

ASPIRE AWARD
ASPIRE AWARD

Vaccines are turning the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic, but their potential goes far beyond infectious disease. Darrell has received an ASPIRE award to develop a new type of vaccine to help anti-cancer immunotherapy.

Irvine Lab's lymph nodes receive the 2020 Koch Institute Image Award!

A Vax Seen
"A Vax Seen"

Jake and Ben's image of over 1,200 lymph nodes titled, "A Vax Seen: Scanning Lymph Nodes for Signs of Antigen" won the 2020 KI Image Award. Back in 2018, the Irvine lab won the same award with a single lymph node. How high the bar has risen!

Sudha Kumari's work gets published on the cover of the EMBO Journal!

2019 KI Retreat Mentorship AwardCover of EMBO
Sudha's latest work on the underlying mechanism behind T-cell synapse symmetry was selected as a cover of the EMBO Journal.

Angela Zhang wins the Peter Karches Mentorship Prize at the 2019 KI Retreat!

2019 KI Retreat Mentorship Award2019 Peter Karches Mentorship Prize
The Koch Institute (KI) Fall Retreat is an annual event comprised of great scientific talks, poster presentations, and social activities, and is one of the major community-building experiences for KI members to learn about what's going on at the KI and mix and mingle with faculty, researchers and trainees in a casual yet energizing environment.

Lauren Milling selected as a Class of 2020 Siebel Scholar!

Convergence Scholars Program AnnouncementClass of 2020 Siebel Scholars
The Siebel Scholars Foundation today announced the recipients of the 2020 Siebel Scholars award. Now in its 19th year, the Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes nearly 100 exceptional students from the world’s leading graduate schools of business, computer science, energy science and bioengineering.

Angela Zhang wins the UROP Outstanding Mentor Award!

Convergence Scholars Program AnnouncementUROP Outstanding Mentor Award Winners
Each spring, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) invites its students to nominate research mentors who have demonstrated exceptional guidance and teaching in a research setting. In addition to faculty, nominees may include instructors, lecturers, graduate students and other research affiliates, who provided UROP supervision anytime between the summer and spring of the given academic year.

Irvine lab's lymph node receives the 2018 Koch Institute Image Award

Convergence Scholars Program Announcement2018 Koch Institute Image Award
Featured on Nature (photo credit to Jason Y.H. Chang and Tyson Moyer)- Bedazzled. This might look like a mutant, double-lobed disco ball, but it’s actually a microscope snapshot inside a lymph node. Researchers have designed nanoparticle vaccines (blue) to target immune cells called dendritic cells (orange) and jump-start a coordinated immune response against infection. The picture was a winner in the science-image awards hosted by the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.

Mark Miller wins the Infinite Mile Award!

Convergence Scholars Program Announcement2018 Infinite Mile Award Winners

Jason Chang selected as a 2018 Misrock Fellow!

Convergence Scholars Program Announcement2018 Misrock Fellows
Since 2010, Misrock Fellows at Koch Institute have made promising advances in nanotechnology-based cancer research. The foundation's support has enabled dedicated young scientists to push forward the frontiers of cancer research through new methods of drug delivery systems, therapeutics, and new technologies. At the same time the foundation's assistance advances innovative research, it also propels the career development of its fellows. The Misrock Fellowships thus form a bright example of cutting-edge cancer research at MIT.

Jake Martin was selected for the inaugural class of the new Convergence Scholars Program!

Convergence Scholars Program AnnouncementAnnouncing the first class of Convergence Scholars
The Convergence Scholars Program (CSP) aims at cultivating in postdoctoral trainees an integrative vision of science and technology. CSP will provide postdoctoral trainees with opportunities to further their experiences and skills beyond the research laboratory space. The inaugural class of Convergence Scholars represents the six Marble Center research groups within the Koch Institute.

Kelly Moynihan was a member of the winning team in the Merck KGaA Biopharma Innovation Cup 2017!

The winning team “Immuno-Oncology” received €20,000 for its innovative idea around the role of Natural Killer (NK) cells in cancer immunology.
Biopharma Innovation Cup 2017

Mariane Melo was awarded a 2017 MIT Infinite Mile Award!

Infinite Mile Awards

Kelly Moynihan was an honoree at the 2017 celebration of Graduate Women of Excellence!

Celebration of graduate women 2017

Talar Tokatlian was a recipient of a 2016 Scripps CHAVI-ID Young Investigator Award at the annual All-Investigators Retreat in La Jolla, CA!

2016 Young Investigator Award Recipients

Left to Right: Darrell Irvine, Talar Tokatlian, Tyson Moyer

Left to right: Darrell Irvine, Talar Tokatlian, Tyson Moyer

Kelly Moynihan's research was featured on the MIT website front page! (and also published in Nature Medicine!)

Fighting cancer with the power of immunity: New treatment elicits two-pronged immune response that destroys tumors in mice

Anasuya Mandal's research profile was featured on the MIT website front page!

Benefiting human health through engineering

Grand Prize winner at MIT Polymer Day 2016

Congratulations to Anasuya Mandal for being awarded the Grand Prize at MIT Polymer Day 2016 for her poster "Microneedle-Based Immune Monitoring Platform Samples Cells and Interstitial Fluid from Tissue in Situ"

Dr. Szeto and 6 Irvine Lab undergraduate trainees used a novel microfluidic device developed at MIT (Armon Sharei, Langer/Jensen Labs) as a protein loading platform for B cells.

Microfluidic cell-squeezing device opens new possibilities for cell-based vaccines

Read more.

Annual Koch Institute Image Award 2015

Congratulations to Sudha Kumari and Yiran Zheng on winning the 2015 Annual KI image award for their image "License to kill: Empowering the immune system to fight cancer".

Congratulations to Gregtory Szeto and Adelaide Tovar on winning the 2015 Annual KI image award for their image "Easy breezy: Particles prop open therapeutic windows".

Dr. Peter DeMuth Won the Quadrant Award 2015

Congratulations to Dr. Peter DeMuth on winning the first prize of international Quadrant Award on January 30, 2015.

BMES Annual Meeting 2014

Congratulations to Anasuya Mandal on receiving the Reviewer Choice Award for her poster at the Biomedical Engineering Society 2014 meeting in the Biomaterials track.

Building Bridges for Award-winning Melanoma Research

Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, May 28, 2014
A team led by KI faculty member Darrell Irvine, along with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators Kai Wucherpfennig and Michael Goldberg, received the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) Team Science Award to optimize T cell-targeting nanoparticles for improved melanoma treatment. The Team Science Award Program is the centerpiece of the MRA research funding portfolio and aims to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary, transformational melanoma research advances with the potential for rapid clinical translation. As such, it is no surprise that this team came together through the Bridge Project, a collaboration between the Koch Institute and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center designed to unite bioengineering, advanced cancer science, and clinical oncology to solve challenging problems in cancer research and care. The team's project was among the ten finalists in this year’s round of Bridge Project funding, and speaks to the power of the Bridge Project to establish new connections between unmet clinical needs and innovative technological solutions. Congratulations!

more lab news >>