Who's up at BATS? Litsa Kapsalis (Langer & Jaklenec Labs): “Intraosseous Photothermal Therapy and Local Drug Depots for Breast Cancer Bone Metastases” Julia Zhong (Lauffenburger Lab): “Investigating B Cell-Intrinsic Control of Antibody Glycosylation” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Why wait? The MIT BE & ChemE Career Expo 2026 (10/20) is your direct pipeline to innovative talent in biotech and chemical engineering. Registration under $200. Find your next breakthrough hire? Sign up now! https://ow.ly/H6CZ50ZV65R

Congratulations to Jessica Stark on receiving the NIH Director’s ­New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. This award supports exceptionally creative scientists pursuing transformative research. https://commonfund.nih.gov/newinnovator/fundedresearch

Funded Research

NIH Director's New Innovator Award - Funded Research

commonfund.nih.gov

Who's up at BATS? Mikolaj Godzik (Blainey Lab): “Identifying of Regulators of Cancer Plasticity Using High-Content Optical Pooled Screens” Jing “Vicky” Liu (Hansen Lab): “Scalable Mapping of TF-IDR Interactions to Drug the Undruggable TFs” https://ow.ly/HTrh50ZTV33

Recruit MIT engineering talent at the BE & ChemE Career Expo on the MIT campus, Tues 10/20! Join Moderna, Pirouette Pharma, and Overpotential. Make sure your company has a seat at the table. https://ow.ly/aRmB50ZTF9k

BE Seminar Series this Thurs 10/01 Christopher Barnes, Stanford University “Breaking the Silence: Directing Antibody Evolution Toward the HIV-1 Silent Face” https://ow.ly/PcSo50ZT4cH

The competition for MIT engineering talent is on! Moderna, P&G, Qral Group, and Impact Technology Development are already attending the BE & ChemE Career Expo 10/20. Make sure your company has a seat at the table—and the opportunity to recruit top talent. Register today: https://ow.ly/NrhN50ZPHZf

Who's up at BATS? Aram Shajii (Hammond & White Labs): “Identification and Delivery of Phosphorylated MHC Peptides for Glioblastoma Immunotherapy” Fiona Wang (Buehler Lab): “Engineering AI Collectives for Biological Discovery” https://ow.ly/N8iP50ZPaSm

Voigt Lab researchers have engineered bacteria that can function as transistors, allowing the team to create living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto a growth medium in a Petri dish. https://ow.ly/jLrL50ZAH9B

Boyden Lab researchers have developed a method for imaging neuron activity in the zebrafish brain. Each colored spot (green and yellow) represents an active neuron. https://ow.ly/ZkhG50ZzSUi

Prof. Doug Lauffenburger named Institute Professor. This position is MIT's highest honor, recognizing invaluable contributions across teaching, research, and service. He was the central founder of MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering. https://ow.ly/lqBK50ZqLcU

Emery Brown, Daniel Hastings, and Douglas Lauffenburger named Institute Professors

Emery Brown, Douglas Lauffenburger, and Daniel Hastings have been awarded MIT’s highest faculty honor: the title of Institute Professor.

ow.ly

New MRI sensors developed in the Jasanoff Lab sensitively detect target molecules in the brain and body. Liposomal nanoparticle reporters, or LisNRs, can brighten or dim MRI signals in response to specific molecular targets. https://ow.ly/PkG650Z7JwV

Who's up at BATS? Bishal Thapa (Voigt Lab): “Engineering Radiation Tolerant Fungi for Space Biomanufacturing” Blythe Irwin (Birnbaum & DeKosky Labs): “Introducing RePLiCA: A Replication-Based Protein:Ligand Cellular Activation Assay” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Brian Cheng (Blainey Lab): “StimDrop: High-Throughput Combinatorial Microfluidics Platform for Transcriptional Profiling” Bruce Enzmann (White & Knouse Labs): “Investigating the Signaling Mechanisms of Organ Size Control in the Liver” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

In a new study, Hansen Lab researchers have measured chromatin movement at timescales ranging from hundreds of microseconds to hours, allowing them to rigorously quantify those dynamics for the first time. https://news.mit.edu/2026/how-chromatin-movement-helps-control-gene-expression-0504

How chromatin movement helps control gene expression

For the first time, MIT researchers measured the dynamics of chromatin movement over an extended period of time, ranging from the scale of microseconds to hours. The findings offer insight into how gene expression is regulated, as well as how chromatin segments come together for other processes such as DNA repair.

news.mit.edu

Who's up at BATS? Matt Zackin (Niles Lab): “A Machine Learning Pipeline for Target-Specific Antimalarial Drug Discovery” Daniel Sellers (Ribbeck Lab): “Intestinal Mucin Architecture as a Driver of Microbial Community Health” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/ #infectiousdisease #mucin

"Ask Janina Ojeiduma ’27 to describe one of her foremost personality traits and she’ll tell you: curiosity." https://betterworld.mit.edu/spectrum/issues/spring-2026/janina-ojeiduma-27-eyes-impact-of-environmental-toxins-on-human-health/

Janina Ojeiduma ’27 Eyes Impact of Toxic Chemicals on Human Health

MIT HEALS SuperUROP Scholar Janina Ojeiduma '27 researches the impact of environmental toxins on human health

betterworld.mit.edu

Fraenkel Lab study shows that patterns of molecular activity in the blood may reveal not only a person’s fitness level, but also the biological processes that drive physical performance. https://ow.ly/1l6350YRfuj

Grateful to @natbiotech.nature.com for the opportunity to reflect on my scientific journey, including launching my lab @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Five questions with Jessica Stark - Nature Biotechnology

A builder and problem solver at heart, she is developing technologies to understand and engineer the roles of cell-surface sugars, called glycans, in the immune system.

nature.com

Shenghao Guo (Koehler) “Discovery of FBXW7 Binders for Targeted Protein Degradation Using Small Molecule Microarray” Malik George (Voigt, Niles) “Bioprospecting and Evolving Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria for the Advancement of Microbial Biofertilizers” https://ow.ly/3Mt050YOwp9

Who's up at BATS? Rachel McGinn (Bryson Lab): “Bacterial Control of Antigen Presentation on MHC-I in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection” James Jusuf (Hansen Lab): “Genome-Wide Absolute Quantification of Chromatin Looping” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Engelward Lab research suggests that the chemical NDMA is much more likely to cause cancerous mutations after exposure early in life. https://ow.ly/LHns50YKzVM

Next BE Seminar this Thurs 4/9 at 4pm with Richard M. Murray, California Institute of Technology, 'Upscaling Engineering of Synthetic Biomachines via Synthetic Cells.' https://ow.ly/aX2850YIo1J

Huaiyao Peng (Belcher Lab): “Developing Organoid Models and AI-Driven Optical Imaging for Ovarian Cancer Early Detection” Luka Karginov (Lauffenburger): “Learning Features and Paths of Vaccine-Mediated Protection in Tuberculosis via Partial Correlation” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Amanda Chan (Birnbaum Lab): “A Library-Based Examination of T Cell Allorecognition” Qingyang Henry Zhao (Birnbaum & Wittrup): “Decoding Endogenous Anti-Tumor T Cell Responses for Polyclonal TCR-T Therapy” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/ #TCRrecognition #TILtherapy

BE Seminar Series this Thur, 4pm, 32-155 Melanie Graham, University of Minnesota "You Don’t Control the Immune System, You Design Around It” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

We have many administrative and technical open positions in BE! Learn more: https://be.mit.edu/about/open-staff-positions/

A backup survival pathway can help tumor cells resist certain lung cancer and other drugs. The Forest White Lab reveals that combining therapies may offer a solution. https://ow.ly/U1rf50YARTo

BE Seminar Series continues this Thursday at 4pm with BE alum Jennifer L. Wilson, UCLA "Turning Bugs Into Features - Modeling Drug Off-Target Effects to Understand Cancer Neurology” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

Who's up at BATS? Myra Dada (Manalis & Hemann): “Investigating Cell Stiffness as a Determinant of CAR T Efficacy in B-ALL” Connie Wang (Collins & Edelman): “Nanoengineering Materials to Probe Tissue-Implant Interactions” https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/ #CARTtherapy #ramanspectroscopy