Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

11/04/2025

Adverse events in life such as violence and natural disasters can have dramatic effects on health. To learn how these experiences can inflict molecular “scars” in the genome and body, researchers at the Broad Institute have launched an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort called the Biology of Adversity Project. Led by Jason Buenrostro, a 2023 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, it aims to uncover how adversity increases the risk of certain disorders, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, and major depression, and find ways to better diagnose susceptibility and treat adversity-associated diseases.

Learn more: broad.io/BAP

10/21/2025

Join us this Thursday! Register: https://broadinstitute.swoogo.com/DAD2025

Can you survive a zombie outbreak? Join the Broad Discovery Center for a free, interactive event in partnership with Operation Outbreak on Thursday, October 23, 2025 from 6-8 pm.

Visitors will take part in a fictional infectious disease outbreak through hands-on stations across the museum floor.

Enjoy face painting, music from a DJ, and light snacks while learning how infectious diseases spread, how countermeasures work, and more.

Participants should be ages 12 and up and must have their own smartphone to participate in the simulation. Advanced registration is required.

Register here: https://broadinstitute.swoogo.com/DAD2025

10/21/2025

10/21/2025

🎗I truly believe being in-tune with your body and being your own advocate can be life saving!🎗

"I've always been a highly sensitive person, and I believe my intuition saved me. In the months leading up to my diagnosis, I just didn't feel right—digestive issues, joint pain, and frequent nausea were getting worse.

In February, after labs came back 'normal,' I was about to be sent home with anxiety meds and an anti-inflammatory shot. But I KNEW I couldn't leave yet. I cried for more testing. To everyone’s surprise, there was a tumor on my left kidney, but we found it EARLY! I had my surgery very quickly after discovering it, and it turned out to be a stage 1b TFE3-RCC tumor with an SFPQ fusion partner. My margins were clear, and there was no sign of metastatic disease.

It's been 7 months, and I'm still disease-free! I truly believe being in-tune with your body and being your own advocate can be a life-saving and truly liberating experience!

I joined the tRCC Project to not only spread awareness for this rare subtype but also to connect with my fellow tRCC community members. As a mother to two young children, I want them to see I’m willing to fight – for them, and for others."

- Shallie

We appreciate patients like Shallie sharing their voice to change the future of tRCC research. If you or your child has been diagnosed with tRCC, we invite you to learn more at tRCCProject.org.

10/16/2025

Researchers with the Broad-Bayer oncology research alliance have developed a new drug candidate, sevabertinib, that could help some lung cancer patients who have few therapeutic options today. Led by Franziska Siegel at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Matthew Meyerson, and Heidi Greulich, the team developed sevabertinib to target tumors carrying mutations in the ERBB2 gene, which encodes the HER2 protein. They showed that sevabertinib inhibits tumor cell growth in various lung cancer models with alterations in HER2, and they shared clinical trial data on two patients whose tumors shrank after treatment. The drug candidate is currently under FDA Priority Review and, if approved, it could be a new treatment option for a type of lung cancer that has been historically difficult to treat. It could also be the first FDA-approved cancer drug based on genetic discoveries from Broad scientists, and the first new medicine from the Broad-Bayer research alliance.

The compound, now under priority review at FDA, targets HER2 mutations in lung cancer and shrinks tumors in mice and humans.

10/16/2025

Join us on Thursday, October 23! Register: https://broadinstitute.swoogo.com/DAD2025

Can you survive a zombie outbreak? Join the Broad Discovery Center for a free, interactive event in partnership with Operation Outbreak on Thursday, October 23, 2025 from 6-8 pm.

Visitors will take part in a fictional infectious disease outbreak through hands-on stations across the museum floor.

Enjoy face painting, music from a DJ, and light snacks while learning how infectious diseases spread, how countermeasures work, and more.

Participants should be ages 12 and up and must have their own smartphone to participate in the simulation. Advanced registration is required.

Register here: https://broadinstitute.swoogo.com/DAD2025

10/16/2025

📣 Announcing the legacy portion of the tRCC Project

We believe that every tRCC journey holds vital information for accelerating research and changing the future for those diagnosed with Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma. With that, we’re announcing the launch of the tRCC Legacy Project as a way for parents and caregivers to honor the experiences of their child who faced tRCC, and ensure that their journeys are included in research.

How to participate? Parents can enroll their child by sharing stored tumor samples, medical records, and the deep insight gained from their experience. Please note that we are only able to enroll patients who were treated in the US and Canada. Learn more and enroll: tRCCProject.org/legacy

10/15/2025

Broad Clinical Labs (BCL), in collaboration with Roche Sequencing Solutions and Boston Children’s Hospital, has received official recognition by Guinness World Records for fastest DNA sequencing technique to date!

The teams completed sequencing and analysis of the whole human genome in less than 4 hours, surpassing the previous benchmark of 5 hours and 2 minutes.

This shows it is possible to create a timeframe in which a lab can receive a sample and return actionable results within a single day — a significant difference from current timeframes of two to five days or more.

Learn more: broad.io/BCLGWR

10/08/2025

After a decade of cancer discoveries and more than 12,000 patients enrolled, Count Me In’s patient-partnered research efforts are entering a new phase, merging with Broad Clinical Labs to enable more investigators to conduct these kinds of studies on cancer and rare disease using cutting-edge technologies, and to ensure that data and insights already generated continue to deepen the understanding of cancer.

Enrollment has now completed for most projects, but patients can still enroll in projects focused on translocation renal cell carcinoma, pediatric hepatocellular carcinoma, osteosarcoma, and leiomyosarcoma. Researchers interested in conducting studies with direct patient engagement can learn more here.

Count Me In’s legacy of data and resources will usher in a new way of doing research on other diseases and continue to fuel cancer studies around the globe.

10/08/2025

We’re collaborating with to connect more people to groundbreaking research on eating disorders. Want to help make a difference in eating disorders research? Visit our page or the NEDA website to see how you can join in just a few simple steps!

Adults of all backgrounds, with or without an eating disorder, are invited to participate. Your contribution can help advance understanding and improve lives!

10/02/2025

Can you survive a zombie outbreak? Join the Broad Discovery Center for a free, interactive event in partnership with Operation Outbreak on Thursday, October 23, 2025 from 6-8 pm.

Visitors will take part in a fictional infectious disease outbreak through hands-on stations across the museum floor.

Enjoy face painting, music from a DJ, and light snacks while learning how infectious diseases spread, how countermeasures work, and more.

Participants should be ages 12 and up and must have their own smartphone to participate in the simulation. Advanced registration is required.

Register here: https://broadinstitute.swoogo.com/DAD2025

09/30/2025

Jason Buenrostro, leading epigenetics researcher and longtime Broad member, has been named core institute member of the Broad. A leading epigenomics researcher, technology developer, and a professor at Harvard University, Buenrostro has pioneered the development of molecular tools to analyze the epigenome in single cells at scale, and has used both experimental and computational methods to reveal mechanisms of gene regulation.

At Broad, Buenrostro and his lab will seek to understand how cells change and adapt in response to life experiences, and how those cellular and epigenetic alterations affect health and disease.

🔗: https://broad.io/JB-CIM