MIT Jameel Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers selected by ARPA-H ADAPT Program to pioneer revolutionary cancer treatment
Bottom row (left to right): Genevieve Boland, Justin Gainor, Russell W. Jenkins
Friday, May 23, 2025 — The MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health is proud to announce that “AURORA: AI-driven Understanding of Response Optimization and Resistance Assessment” has been selected to receive funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under its ambitious Advanced Analysis for Precision Cancer Therapy (ADAPT) Program.
Tumors are heterogeneous and evolve over time, making their cells challenging to target and treat. Strategies designed to track and anticipate tumor progression or recommend alternative treatment options must be equally adaptable. Unfortunately, today’s treatment regimens rely on a limited set of biomarkers arising from a single data modality. As such, they are neither powerful enough to target underlying tumor compositions nor sensitive enough to identify early warning signs of tumor evolution. As a result, patients who do not respond well to treatment are discovered from symptoms of their already advanced disease states when the opportunity to consider alternative interventions has been lost.
The overall AURORA team will be led by MIT Jameel Clinic faculty lead Dr. Regina Barzilay. The MIT team includes Jameel Clinic Principal Investigator Dr. Tommi Jaakkola and Dr. Stephen Bates. Dr. Genevieve Boland will be the Co-Principal Investigator for the Massachusetts General Hospital team, which includes Dr. Justin Gainor and Dr. Russell W. Jenkins. The MIT-MGH group joins a prestigious cohort of ten research teams tasked with transforming the landscape of cancer care.
Together, these researchers will focus on developing cutting-edge machine learning algorithms that can utilize various data types, allowing clinicians to personalize treatments while adjusting care plans based on real-time data and predictive insights on tumor trajectory. Not only will this project uncover new biological insights into tumor behavior and drug resistance, it will also facilitate new discoveries in basic biology.
The proposed tools will be developed and tested on three cancer types: lung, colon, and breast. By design, these tools will be readily adaptable to other cancer types and can readily handle new types of biological measurements and clinical indicators as they become available.
MIT’s inclusion in the ADAPT Program highlights the Jameel Clinic’s pioneering role in leveraging AI for real-world health impact and reaffirms the Institute’s commitment to tackling some of the most pressing health challenges of our time.
