Koch Institute Symposium 2024

symposium title with drawing of multicolored cells

The 22nd Annual Koch Institute Symposium on Tumor Heterogeneity and Drug Resistance will take place on Friday, June 21, 2024. This year's speaker lineup features a robust array of experts, both internal to MIT and from external institutions around the US and abroad, representing multiple scientific disciplines and technical approaches that seek to better understand patient-specific variation in cancer progression and response to therapy. 

We cordially invite scientists, oncologists, and any other member of the biomedical community to join us in a day of engaging talks, stimulating conversations with colleagues, and of course camaraderie in our collective fight against cancer. As we explore issues ranging from divergent single-cell states and plasticity to mechanisms of resistance through signaling and epigenetics, please consider joining us at this year’s summer symposium hosted by MIT’s nationally recognized basic cancer center.

Agenda

8:30 AMCheck-in


9:00 - 9:05 AMOpening Remarks

Matthew Vander Heiden
Director, Koch Institute at MIT


9:05 AMSession One: Linking Cancer Cell State to Function 

Chairs: Katie Galloway and Paul Blainey
Koch Institute at MIT

Photo of Cedric Blanpain

Cédric Blanpain | Keynote
Université Libre de Bruxelles
"Mechanisms regulating tumor transition states"

Photo of Karuna Ganesh

Karuna Ganesh
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
"
Dissecting and targeting plasticity in metastatic colorectal cancer"


10:30 AM – 11:00 AM Break 

Photo of Sydney Shaffer

Sydney Shaffer
University of Pennsylvania
"
Tracking cell state plasticity in injury and cancer"

Photo of Alex Shalek

Alex Shalek 
Koch Institute at MIT
"
Does cell state matter in cancer?"


12:00pm – 1:30pm Lunch Break 


1:30 PMSession Two: Integrating Genomics & Signaling in Tumor Drug Response

Chairs: Anders Hansen and Yadira Soto-Feliciano
Koch Institute at MIT

Photo of Paul Mischel

Paul Mischel 
Stanford University
"Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA): Cancer’s dynamic circular genome"

Photo of Rameen Beroukhim

Rameen Beroukhim
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School
"
Effects of positive and negative selection on cancer genomes"


2:30 PM – 3:00 PM Break 

Photo of Neal Rosen

Neal Rosen 
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
"Mechanisms of primary resistance to RAS inhibitors"

Photo of Michael Yaffe

Michael Yaffe
Koch Institute at MIT
"
CRISPR-based interrogation of therapeutic resistance in ovarian cancer identifies known and novel targets"

Photo of Kate Chiappinelli

Katherine Chiappinelli 
George Washington University
"
Targeting transposable elements to reverse cancer immune evasion"


4:30pm – 4:35pmConcluding Remarks

Matthew Vander Heiden 
Director, Koch Institute at MIT