Dear Friends & Members of the Englander Institute,
Welcome to the second quarterly external newsletter of 2026!
Thank you for signing up on our website to receive this newsletter, we hope you enjoy learning more about the important progress we've made towards our mission since the end of March.
Since we know you love science, medicine & technology, why not follow us daily on our social media channels and never miss our news, events, awards, and publications: on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky!
It's been a remarkably productive quarter, with new awards & grants to our researchers, new clinical trials initiated, print and broadcast news media coverage of our colleagues, exciting events, and published research in top-tier scientific journals. A sample of this work is highlighted below. 
This important work is only possible because of the financial support we receive from foundations, government agencies, corporate partners, and individual donors. We invite you to consider donating to our mission to advance science and speed new treatments to patients.
Thank you again for your interest in our work!
Sincerely,
Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.
News Coverage & Awards 
Pinkal Desai, M.D. recently earned the Jeanne and Herbert Siegel Faculty Development Award! The prize recognizes an early-career faculty member for exemplary clinical and research contributions, as well as teaching and mentoring medical students.
Dr. Ekta Khurana received a $1.2M federal grant to develop advanced tools that analyze patients’ DNA for markers of a treatment-resistant type of prostate cancer. Dr. Khurana and her team are also using machine learning tools to scan patients’ DNA and identify specific proteins in SCL tumor cells that drive the disease. This approach may help detect treatment resistance in real time. Learn more about her important work in a recent Cornell Chronicle news article!
The Cornell Chronicle and the WCM Newsroom published interviews with our EIPM colleague Dr. Dan Landau about his new paper in Cell "Single-cell mapping of regulatory DNA-protein interactions." Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News and Bioengineer also covered Dr. Landau's new paper. Finally, Dr. Landau also just earned a Lotus Award from the Pershing Square Foundation for research aimed at uncovering new immunotherapy targets in ovarian cancer!
Dr. Manish Shah reports that "A breakthrough in pancreatic cancer, a novel combination for liver cancer, the role of observation in colorectal cancer, and an antibody-drug conjugate in esophageal cancer are among advances in gastrointestinal cancers presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2026." MedScape, June 23rd. 
Dr. Jonathan Zippin is working on an innovative approach to treating grey hair. On June 22nd The TODAY Show took a closer look at immunotherapy treatments that may reactivate the stem cells crucial coloring hair.
Great new Cancer Screening article in Weill Cornell Medicine's Impact magazine, "The ultimate goal is to facilitate prevention and early detection, which ultimately are the most important factors for prognosis, said EIPM Member Dr. Ravi Sharaf!
EIPM Member Dr. Silvia Formenti, Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Meyer Cancer Research, earned the Robert F. Kallman Award by Stanford University. The award, and accompanying memorial lecture, is a prestigious honor in radiation oncology and biology presented by Stanford’s Department of Radiation Oncology. It recognizes outstanding scientific excellence, academic leadership and contributions to the profession.
"Avelumab Maintenance: Defining Its Role in the Era of Enfortumab Vedotin + Pembrolizumab for Bladder Cancer," was published by Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg in the ASCO Daily News on May 6th. 
Congratulations to Cancer Therapeutics program and EIPM member Dr. Eleni Andreopoulou on earning an Honorary Professorship from the University of Ioannina Medical School in Greece in recognition of her contributions to teaching and mentorship — the first woman to receive this distinction!
Congratulations to Dr. Caiquan Jin, a postdoc in the lab of our Chief Research Officer Dr. Bishoy Faltas, who earned a 2026 Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network Young Investigator Award!
Congratulations to Chief Research Officer Bishoy Faltas, M.D. on earning the first AACR "Innovative Bladder Cancer Research Award"!
EIPM colleagues, including Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D. and Paraskevi Giannakakou Ph.D. were featured in an April 13th Weill Cornell Medicine Newsroom article "WCM Investigators Empowering Cancer Researchers with AI."
Be sure to read the really interesting SciTechDaily article "AI May Soon Detect Cancer Just by Listening to You Speak" about the Bridge2AI consortium that the EIPM and Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D. helped create!
Events
Our Chief Research Officer Dr. Bishoy Faltas participated in an FDA workshop discussing contemporary issues in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer trial design and interpretation on May 18th.
Thanks to Dr. Alokkumar Jha, Assistant Professor of Research in Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine, for presenting the EIPM Precision Medicine AI Working Group talk, "A Foundation Model Augmented Polygenic Risk Score for Neural Tube Defects," on April 24th. 
An all-star panel of experts including Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D. convened in Uris Auditorium on April 28th for "AI to Advance Medicine: From Research to Practice."
Publications
"Serum metabolite patterns of adipose tissue distribution and body composition subphenotypes," was published in Lipids in Health and Disease on April 9th by Dr. Karsten Suhre.
"Using an Artificial Intelligence Conversational Agent in Virtual Reality to Teach Serious Illness Communication Skills to Residents," was published in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education on April 15th by EIPM colleagues Alexandros Sigaras, MS and Sandhya Sriram, BS. 
Whole Genome Sequencing of Locally Advanced and Metastatic Breast Carcinoma Unravels Relevant Molecular Signatures and Novel Events," was published in Pathology--Research and Practice on April 15th by Drs. Juan Miguel Mosquera & Eda Nur Kozan from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM, with Dr. Baris Boyraz from the Pathology department, together with Pathology and EIPM colleagues Drs. Jesus Delgado-de la Mora, Majd Al Assaad, Shaham Beg, Alissa Semaan, David Wilkes, and Andrea Sboner, and EIPM Members Kathryn Gorski, Alexandros Sigaras, Noah Greco, Michael Sigouros, Jyothi Manohar, and Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.
"Metabolomics of Right Ventricular Function in Pulmonary Hypertension," was published in Circulation Research on April 15th by doctoral student JonathanChacon-Barahona (Krumsiek Lab) and Dr. Jan Krumsiek. The research also generated a companion editorial, "A Metabolomics Roadmap to Right Ventricular Function in Pulmonary Hypertension," Circulation Research on May 21st.
"EXaCT-2: An augmented and customizable oncology-focused whole exome sequencing platform," was published in NPJ Precision Oncology on April 21st by EIPM's Director of Innovation Dr. Alicia Alonzo, with Dr. Andrea Sboner from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM, and our colleagues Drs. Peter Waltman, Pooja Chandra, Ken W. Eng, David C. Wilkes, Director Olivier Elemento with EIPM colleagues Princesca Delpe, Bhavneet Bhinder, Jyothi Manohar, Troy Kane, Kathryn Gorski, Noah Greco, Manuele Simi, Jeffrey M. Tang, Pantelis Zisimopoulos, Abigail King, Alexandros Sigaras, Rob Kim, Jeffrey Catalano, Michael Sigouros, and Drs. Majd Al Assaad and Juan Miguel Mosquera from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department & the EIPM.
"Trial emulation for validating the clinical efficacy of a foundational AI model in embryo selection," was published in NPJ Digital Medicine on April 23rd by our colleagues Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha with Suraj Rajendran and WCM colleagues. 
"Transcriptome sequencing of Hodgkin lymphoma Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells reveals escape from NK cell recognition and an unfolded protein response," was published in Blood Cancer Journal on April 22nd by WCM colleagues Lisa Giulino-Roth and Ethel Cesarman, with EIPM's Bhavneet Binder, MS and Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.
"Mechanistic insights into emerging therapeutic platforms: The 72nd annual Montagna Symposium on the biology of skin," was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology on May 7th by Dr. Niroshana Anandasabapathy.
"Tumor immune microenvironment reconstitution in patient-derived organoids enables therapy modeling for NSCLC," was published in Cell Reports Methods on May 13th by Enrique Podaza, Jared Capuano, Hui-Hsuan Kuo, John Nguyen, Adriana Irizarry, Hiranmayi Ravichandran, Troy Kane, Jyothi Manohar, Alyssa Duren-Lubanski, Michael Sigouros, Jenna Moyer, Bhavneet Bhinder, Pooja Chandra, Drs. Vivek Mittal, Nasser Altorki and Director Olivier Elemento, with Drs. Juan Miguel Mosquera, Andrea Sboner and Majd Al Assad from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM.
"Urinary Single-Cell Transcriptomics in Kidney Transplantation: Elucidation of Donor–Recipient Cellular Dynamics and Fibrogenic Stress," was published in The American Journal of Transplantation on May 13th by our Director of Innovation Dr. Alicia Alonso, with Drs. Jenny Zhaoying Xiang and Karsten Suhre.
"Very low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet in treatment-naïve women with endometrial cancer and overweight: a randomized feasibility study," was published in Nature Communications on May 27th by Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D., Dr. Benjamin D Hopkins, with Jenna Moyer, Kathryn Gorski, and Michael Sigouros.
"Multi-cohort proteogenomic analyses reveal genetic effects across the proteome and diseasome," was published in Cell on May 28th by Dr. Karsten Suhre.
"19q13 amplification with AKT2 and ERCC2 gains in sarcomatoid carcinoma of the urinary bladder," was published in the June 2026 edition of Cancer Genetics by Chief Research Officer Bishoy Faltas M.D., Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D., Dr. Ana Molina, and Dr. Juan Miguel Mosquera from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM. 
"Enhancing the quality and trustworthiness of large language model-generated summaries of clinical oncology literature," was published in JAMIA Open on June 16th by Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg with Dr. Andrea Sboner from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM.
"Patient-derived organoids across cancers reveal conserved tumor heterogeneity and actionable therapeutic vulnerabilities," was published in Science Advances on June 26th by EIPM colleagues Hui-Hsuan Kuo, Bhavneet Bhinder, Kathryn Gorski, Jyothi Manohar, John Otilano, Jenna Moyer, Marvel Tranquille, Sarah Ackermann, Jared Capuano, Cynthia Cheung, Thomas A. Caiazza, Phoebe L. Reuben, Anastasia Murray Tsomides, Adriana Irizarry, Michael Sigouros, Abigail King, Troy Kane, Joonghoon Auh, Florencia P. Madorsky Rowdo, Enrique Podaza, Valerie Gallegos, John Nguyen, Rachel Simmons, Evelyn Cantillo, Jennifer Marti, Elizabeth Popa, Elouise Chapman-Davis; Drs. Peter Waltman, Raehash Shah, Manish Shah, Allyson Ocean, Daniela Guevara, Nasser Altorki, Ana M. Molina, David Wilkes, Lisa Newman, Ashish Saxena, Scott T. Tagawa, Jonathan Zippin, David Nanus, Director of Innovation Alicia Alonso, Clinical Director Cora N. Sternberg, Chief Research Officer Bishoy M. Faltas, and Director Olivier Elemento; and from the EIPM and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine departments: Pooja Chandra, and Drs. Majd Al Assaad, Wael Al Zoughbi, Kentaro Ohara, Director of Research Pathology Juan Miguel Mosquera, and Director of Informatics and Computational Biology Andrea Sboner. 
"AI systems devise hypotheses and ways to test them. AI agents collaborate to generate biomedical hypotheses and analyse data, moving towards a laboratory discovery cycle with AI involved in every step," was published as a News & Views article in Nature on June 30th by EIPM Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.
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