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Jessica Stark

@jcstark.bsky.social
2.3K followers 655 following 47 posts

Learning from glycobiology to understand and engineer immunity | Asst Prof @ MIT BE, MIT ChemE, and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research | jstarklab.com

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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 17/09/2026
The Trump admin has decimated American science budgets, taking away life saving opportunities, and the potential for groundbreaking discoveries. This is how you destroy American innovation. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
Trump administration has cut or frozen $177 billion in grants across every state, analysis shows
An analysis finds that the Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term.
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Thrilled to share that postdoc @megtriesscience.bsky.social was awarded a @cancerresearchinst.bsky.social Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship! Her funded work is defining a role for glycans in colorectal cancer initiation. Learn more: www.cancerresearch.org/cri-funded-s... Congratulations, Megan! 🍾
cancerresearch.org
Megan Priestley, PhD - Cancer Research Institute
Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest cancer worldwide, and rates are rising alarmingly among younger adults. Although immunotherapy has transformed treatment for some cancers, more than 90% of co...
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
America's R1 universities educate ~8–9 million students (undergraduate + graduate) -> more than 1/3 of U.S. college students (vs. the ~0.6% of Ivies). Undermining this system threatens the institutions that train our workforce and drive scientific innovation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
An American research crisis with real human consequences
Ivy League universities have dominated recent news headlines, having become popular targets for critics of higher education. But the threats they face—cuts to federal research funding, assaults on aca...
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
MIT ACCESS is an opportunity for undergraduates to explore cutting-edge research and graduate education in science and engineering. See for yourself what grad life is like at MIT! Applications due Aug 1: access.mit.edu @mitcheme.bsky.social @mitchemistry.bsky.social
access.mit.edu
MIT ACCESS – Opening doors and promoting diversity in science and engineering
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Burroughs Wellcome Fund @bwfund.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
📢 LOIs now open for CASI CASI aims to foster investigators who are integrating approaches from quantitative, computational, or physical sciences to address complex biological questions 🔗 Details & information: <https://buff.ly/LRHROHL> #bwfcasi #GrantOpportunity
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The next generation of scientists will be a smaller cohort because of the policies of this administration: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/u...
nytimes.com
Decline of Ph.D. Admissions Could Imperil a ‘Generation of New Talent’
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Calling all Scientists! Research Administrators! Deans! Fans of Science! No one is coming to save us. Here is your assignment. I have written a step by step, easy to understand "how-to" document to help you comment on the proposed OMB rule. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...
elizabethginexi.substack.com
What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB 2026-10817)
What OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule Means in Practice
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The public comment period closes approximately July 13, 2026 (45 days from May 29 publication). Comments must be submitted to regulations.gov, Docket OMB-2026-0034
regulations.gov
Regulations.gov
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Excellent summary of how Vought’s proposed rule will destroy science. Please be ready to comment tomorrow, call Congress, tell your friends. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to speak up, that moment is now.
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
A pleasure to give @stanfordimmunology.bsky.social seminar last week for a few reasons: - to be invited by trainees - to visit the place that got me hooked on immunology - to share results from my lab @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social Thanks for having me!
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Honored to receive a Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize and excited about the work this award will support! Learn more about our efforts to target glycans to enable precision immunotherapies for cancer: pershingsquarephilanthropies.org/prize-winner... @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social
pershingsquarephilanthropies.org
Jessica Stark — Pershing Square Philanthropies
Pershing Square Philanthropies - we bet on innovative leaders solving humanity’s big societal, environmental, and health challenges.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
MIT Koch Institute @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Congrats to @jcstark.bsky.social on being named a 2026 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize awardee, supporting bold, high-risk ideas w/ potential to transform cancer research. Her work explores how cancer-cell glycans can be harnessed for new approaches to precision immunotherapy. mit-ki.org/42kmCAX
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
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...
nature.com
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.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · 24/04/2026
Five questions with Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social go.nature.com/42sA99y
go.nature.com
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.
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
We are searching for a talented administrative assistant to provide critical support for our team @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social. Learn more and apply: tinyurl.com/3r9crrbm Please share widely! #hiring #sciencejobs
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
New research grants in essentially all fields (as judged by NIH Institutes and Center missions) fell by 20-25% from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025. 2/5
A table/graph showing that the number of new and competitive renewal grants across essentially all fields (as judged by NIH Institutes and Centers) fell by 20-25% from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Science Magazine @science.org · 05/03/2026
"There is perhaps no stronger evidence of the [Trump] administration’s objectives to reduce the quality of the US scientific workforce than its treatment of the [NSF]’s flagship Graduate Research Fellowship Program," writes H. Holden Thorp in a new #ScienceEditorial. scim.ag/4d0fi3N
A quote by H. Holden Thorp, Editor-in-chief of Science journals, on a black background. The quote is: "… why curtail a program … that cultivates and grows the number of US graduate students and future researchers?"
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social Single-Cell and Spatial Methods for Multimodal Functional Glycan Profiling in Tissues www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @harvard.edu @broadinstitute.org @shaleklab.bsky.social @ragoninstitute.bsky.social @laurakiessling.bsky.social
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Great to see our work to engineer AbLecs as a new immunotherapy modality featured in @natrevdrugdiscov.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Antibody–lectin chimeras: new checkpoint inhibitors in the toolbox
Discover the world’s best science and medicine | Nature.com
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
MIT Koch Institute @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Cancer cells use sugar-based immune checkpoints to suppress immune attack. New work from Jessica Stark & Carolyn Bertozzi shows that blocking these glycan checkpoints with AbLecs can release that brake & boost anti-tumor immunity across cancer types. news.mit.edu/2025/new-imm...
A simple figure of a Y-shaped lectin is in center. In background are 2 photos showing the amount of killed cancer cells, in red, over 5 hours.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Vaccines, the most impressive public health intervention in medical history, and where we could be headed if there was not efforts to negate truth, facts, and evidence A great, open-access, review and perspective by @scientificdiscovery.dev
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Science in Boston @scienceinboston.com · 05/01/2026
Researchers led by Dr. Jessica Stark (@jcstark.bsky.social) have developed a new way to stimulate the immune system to attack tumor cells, using a strategy that could make #CancerImmunotherapy work for many more patients. 📰 MIT News: bit.ly/3YlpCeq
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Rong @rongl.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
New online in @natbiotech.nature.com: Cancer immunotherapy benefits from antibody-lectin chimeras that block glyco-immune checkpoints.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 16/12/2025
Congratulations @jcstark.bsky.social and the team, antibody-lectin chimeras (AbLecs), a new modality for cancer immune therapy, now published @natbiotech.nature.com. These bispecifics can block glyco-immune checkpoint receptor ligands directly at the immune synapse/activate immune effector functions
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · 16/12/2025
Antibody-lectin chimeras for glyco-immune checkpoint blockade - @jcstark.bsky.social @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social go.nature.com/4aRDpk8
go.nature.com
Antibody-lectin chimeras for glyco-immune checkpoint blockade - Nature Biotechnology
Cancer immunotherapy benefits from antibody-lectin chimeras that block glyco-immune checkpoints.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
A new jump forward in cancer immunotherapy blocking glycan sugar molecules (antibodies to lectin, AbLec) that releases the immune system brakes against many types of tumors @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social @jcstark.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Out now: We present antibody-lectin chimeras (AbLecs) as a molecular platform to target sugars, or glycans, for cancer immunotherapy. www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social @stanford-chemh.bsky.social
nature.com
Antibody-lectin chimeras for glyco-immune checkpoint blockade - Nature Biotechnology
Cancer immunotherapy benefits from antibody-lectin chimeras that block glyco-immune checkpoints.
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Fewer funded grants and graduate fellowships mean fewer innovative technologies and disease cures in our future. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
🚨 Attention undergraduate scientists and engineers! 🚨 Want to spend a summer doing research at MIT? Join us for the 2026 MIT Summer Research Program! Learn more and apply: oge.mit.edu/msrp/ @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
It's a great year to join the Leading Edge community 🕊️🤍
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Great to see this story in print! Congrats @megtriesscience.bsky.social @douglaspdyer.bsky.social and team! Looking forward to sharing Megan's first contributions as a postdoc in our lab at @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social soon... 👀
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Why fundamental research is fundamental to progress, seeding major breakthroughs Editorial @nature.com this week And 7 basic science discoveries that changed the world nature.com/articles/d41... nature.com/articles/d41...
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
We are recruiting new faculty in IMES at MIT! IMES (Institute for Medical Engineering and Science) is the MIT home of the famous HST program. As faculty are also appointed in a department at MIT, we have diverse research programs, all focused on human health. faculty-searches.mit.edu/imes-search/
faculty-searches.mit.edu
MIT Faculty Searches MIT INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE FACULTY SEARCH
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 14/09/2025
“It will take decades to recover from this, if we ever do.” America’s cancer research system, which has helped save millions of lives and is in one of its most productive moments, is under threat by the Trump administration.
nyti.ms
Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer
America’s cancer research system, which has helped save millions of lives, is under threat in one of its most productive moments.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
Wow! Covid vaccine development and delivery cost $79.4 billion, but the health and economic benefits of vaccination were valued between $4.83 trillion–$37.8 trillion. A return on investment of $59.8–$475 per dollar invested!! This is why vaccine equity matters! www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
medrxiv.org
The global return-on-investment of COVID-19 vaccines in the first year of the vaccination programme
COVID-19 vaccines played a critical role in reducing global health burden during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their rapid development required extraordinary effort. This study aims to evaluate their glo...
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
WHO @who.int · 28/08/2025
#ThrowbackThursday: In 1980 the 🌍🌎🌏 was declared #smallpox free, thanks to mass vaccination efforts. Smallpox was an acute contagious disease caused by the variola virus. It was one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity. #VaccinesWork
World Health: The Magazine of the World Health Organization. May 1980. smallpox is dead!
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
"The ideas and technologies that are being destroyed today, ... some of them irreversibly, those are the cures that would have been present 20 years from now." "It’s people who will get cancer in 10, 20, or 30 years who will really pay the price for these cuts." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | America First? Not When It Comes to Your Health.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 13/06/2025
Spending a few days with intramural researcher at NIH has me thinking about the old Bell Labs, the storied research institute where major breakthroughs in physics, chemistry and mat sci (and associated @nobelprize.bsky.social awards) were made in the 70s-80s 1/n
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Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Federal science cuts aren’t just halting medical research or disrupting clinical trials. They are already costing us $8.1 billion and 35,000 jobs. The projected loss is $16 billion and 68,000 jobs every year. This reaches every corner of America. scienceimpacts.org
scienceimpacts.org
SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research
Developed by an interdisciplinary research team, this website shows how funding cuts reduce economic activity and employment nationwide
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Science Magazine @science.org · 09/06/2025
“As the Trump administration continues to drastically defund and dismantle basic science in America, the United States is presenting other countries with opportunities to take the lead …” writes H. Holden Thorp in a new #ScienceEditorial. scim.ag/43R82B5
"The United States will no longer have the same window into the technologies of the future ... " - H. Holden Thorpe, Editor-in-chief, Science journals
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Sign on in support of the #BethesdaDeclaration actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na... 2/2
actionnetwork.org
ADD YOUR NAME: Sign the Open Letter in Support of NIH Staff
Join the courageous and committed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public servants by adding your name now.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The gutting of US biomedical research with loss of ~2,500 grants affecting research for cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious disease, global health and much more www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Where was this important 1st randomized trial performed? China Where are 8 of the 10 most productive research institutions in the world as of March 2025? China nature.com/nature-index... What country is radically defunding research and will lose its competitiveness? USA
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
MIT ACCESS is an opportunity for undergraduates to explore cutting-edge research and graduate education in science and engineering. See for yourself what grad life is like at MIT! Applications open June 1: access.mit.edu @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitcheme.bsky.social @mitchemistry.bsky.social
access.mit.edu
MIT ACCESS – Opening doors and promoting diversity in science and engineering
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
Jon Levy @jonlevybu.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
On a day when all research grants at Harvard were terminated, and in a context where Congress seems to broadly accept the notion that destroying science and health research in the US is fine, it’s worth noting that this is not what the public wants.
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Reposted by Jessica Stark
MIT Koch Institute @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Go beyond the ABCs of ADCs! Join us for the 23rd Annual @kochinstitute Symposium on Antibody Drug Conjugates, June 27th! Our keynote speaker is Nobel-prize winner @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social of @stanford.edu & an array of industry and academic leaders. Register: mit-ki.org/4lfoxiz
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Paul Offit @pauloffit.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
youtu.be/aXdoExz_cd4?... The anti-vaccine movement has been so successful that children are now dying from preventable infections.
youtu.be
Beyond the Noise #64: Anti-vaxxers, the dog that caught the car
YouTube video by MicrobeTV
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Enjoyed discussing the interface of glycobiology and immunology with @mitcheme.bsky.social colleague Brandon Dekosky on The Chain podcast. Looking forward to sharing our work at #PEGSummit next month! @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social @mitkochinstitute.bsky.social www.healthtech.com/the-chain/pe...
healthtech.com
Episode 71 PEGS Young Scientist Keynote Jessica Stark on the Role of Glycans in Cancer Research
April 15, 2025 | In this episode of The Chain, host Brandon DeKosky, associate professor, speaks with MIT colleague Jessica Stark, Underwood-Prescott career development professor, about glycans and wh...
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Great summary of last month's senate forum on what cuts to NIH funding mean for Americans: fewer treatments and fewer cures for diseases that collectively affect us all. Worth the ~12 min watch!
Image shows the title slide from video linked in quoted post that summarizes the March 26 senate forum titled “Cures in Crisis: What Gutting NIH Research Means for Americans with Cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Other Diseases"
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Jessica Stark @jcstark.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Yesterday we celebrated @mitdeptofbe.bsky.social PhD student Brian Cho, who received an honorable mention in this year's #NSFGRFP competition. Brian's work promises to shed new light on the adaptive immune response to glycans and glycoproteins. Congratulations! 🍾
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