Angela N. Koehler, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Biological Engineering, MIT
Intramural Faculty, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Institute Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT Member, MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine

koehler@mit.edu

Angela Koehler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT and an intramural member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. She is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute and a Founding Member of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine. Her research group aims to discover and develop functional small-molecule probes of targets emerging from patient-based genomics, including targets deemed recalcitrant to small molecule drug discovery efforts, such as transcription factors, RNA-binding proteins or cytokines. Selected probes may be developed into imaging agents, diagnostic tools, or therapeutic leads.

Angela received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Reed College in 1997. There she worked under the guidance of Professor Arthur Glasfeld on structural and biochemical studies of proteins that recognize tRNA or DNA. In 2003, she received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University where she worked with Professor Stuart Schreiber to develop novel technologies for identifying and characterizing interactions between proteins and small molecules. Upon graduation, she became an Institute Fellow in the Chemical Biology Program at the Broad Institute and a Group Leader for the NCI Initiative for Chemical Genetics.

At MIT, Angela serves as the Faculty Director of the High-Throughput Sciences Facility in the Swanson Biotechnology Center. She is a co-Director of the MIT Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Program. Angela has served on the Chemists in Cancer Research Executive Advisory Board for AACR. Awards include being named a Genome Technology Young Investigator and a Broad Institute Merkin Fellow as well as the Novartis Lectureship in Chemistry, the Ono Pharma Breakthrough Science Award, the AACR-Bayer Innovation and Discovery Award and the MIT Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching. Angela serves as a consultant or scientific advisory board member to several pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies and has founded several biotechnology companies, including Ligon Discovery, Kronos Bio, and 76Bio.


Toshihiko Aiba

Visiting Scientist
email to taiba@mit.edu

EDUCATION

PhD, Chemistry, Osaka University, 2017
BS, Chemistry, Osaka University, 2012

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am a visiting scientist from Ono Pharmaceutical, a Japanese pharmaceutical company. My interest in the Koehler lab is the discovery of novel chemical probes for challenging targets using small molecule microarray (SMM) platform. I am also interested in the biophysical and functional characterization of hit compounds.

Andrea Casiraghi, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate
email to acasirag@mit.edu

EDUCATION

PhD, Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Milano, 2020 BS, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies, University of Milano, 2016

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am interested in using the SMM platform to identify novel ligands that modulate challenging targets in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and gastric cancer. In additional, I am interested in the characterization of hit compounds in biophysical and cellular assays. Finally, I am interested in hit-to-lead optimization using computational and synthetic chemistry.

Shenghao (Jack) Guo

PhD Student, Biological Engineering
email to sguo0202@mit.edu

EDUCATION

BA, Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University 2022 MSe, Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University 2022

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I'm interested in exploring the use of small molecules as probes and cures toward diverse protein targets and combining multi-omics to build profiles for changes in cells in response to the small molecules. I'm currently assisting in targeting TOX protein degradation. I'm also working on E-3 ligases' molecular glue/probe that govern c-MYC degradation for cancer treatment.


Becky.jpg

Becky Leifer, MS

Research Associate
email to beleifer@mit.edu
connect on linkedin

EDUCATION

MS, Biotechnology, Northeastern University, 2014
MS, Organic Chemistry, Northeastern University, 2005
BA, Chemistry, Vassar College, NY, 1998


RESEARCH INTERESTS

With funding from ACCRF, MIT’s CPCM, and the Starr Cancer Consortium, my work primarily involves chemical probe discovery for the transcription factor c-MYB, which is deregulated in cancer settings such as Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC), using the Koehler Lab's SMM technology to screen small-molecule libraries against this and other challenging targets.   To further progress lead compounds resulting from these screens, I am working on using various approaches such as genome-wide CRISPR screening to generate cellular target profiles and gain insight into mechanism of action for these small molecule probe candidates.

Mohammed (Mo) Toure

PhD Candidate, Biological Engineering
email to mtoure@mit.edu

EDUCATION

BA, Biomedical Engineering, Harvard College 2016

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am interested in employing engineering approaches to drive discovery and characterization of small molecule probes against challenging therapeutic targets. My work to date has focused on developing PROTAC-based degraders of the transcriptional kinase CDK9 and evaluating the consequences of degrading the kinase versus inhibiting kinase function in a cellular setting. This work has been funded by MIT’s CPCM.

Keisuke Motoyama, PhD

Visiting Scientist
email to motoyama@mit.edu

EDUCATION

PhD, Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 2014
BS, Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 2009

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am a visiting medicinal chemist from Daiichi-Sankyo, a Japanese pharmaceutical company. I am interested in discovering novel probes for difficult targets via SMMs. My current research involves the synthesis of protein degraders based on ligands found by SMM screens.


Bocheng Wu, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate
email to bocheng@mit.edu

EDUCATION

PhD, Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021 BS, Chemistry, Marquette University, 2014

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My interests in the Koehler Lab include the discovery of chemical probes for the TOX transcription factor. TOX is an important nuclear protein involved in chromatin remodeling and is an emergent target for immunotherapy. I am using the SMM platform to screen for small molecules that impact TOX DNA-binding and was recently awarded a Frontier grant to expand my screens and initiate preliminary follow up studies.

Yichen Xiang

Graduate Student, Biological Engineering
email to ycx@mit.edu

EDUCATION

BS, Biomedical Engineering, The University of California San Diego, 2022


RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am interested in the area of high throughput screening techniques for drug discovery, as well as in exploring strategies to target oncoproteins that are typically challenging to drug. Currently, I am working on targeting the oncogenic fusion protein PAX3-FOXO1 in pediatric cancer alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma using protein degraders and the SMM screens developed in the Koehler Lab.

Matt Zackin

Graduate Student, Biological Engineering
email to mzackin@mit.edu

EDUCATION

BS, Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, 2022

RESEARCH INTERESTS

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, I am interested in using the SMM platform to perform target-based screens to identify new antimalarial compounds. I am also interested in performing conditional knockdown profiling in the malaria parasite to validate candidate small molecules. This work is also advised by Prof. Jacquin Niles.