Dear Members of the Englander Institute,
Thank you all so much for a very successful and productive November!
By now you have probably heard the news about the transformational new gift from Izzy Englander that will benefit the EIPM and other WCM programs. As Dean Harrington wrote, 'We are immensely grateful to Mr. Englander for his generosity and his vision, which will further our leadership and innovation in health care.' This news comes fast on the heels of the Dean's recent announcement that the EIPM and MCC will be acquiring 200,000 new square feet of office space at 1334 York Avenue. I can't think of a more wonderful way to end 2023 and begin the new year with momentum and excitement! 
A final thanks to everyone who made our International Cancer Genome Consortium Workshop such a great success. The event focused on promoting the diversity of genomic data and overcoming obstacles to sharing large cohorts. It was truly an international event with participation by over 100 members from 10 countries!
Congratulations to our former colleague Dr. Tomer Yaron who was selected to the 2024 Forbes "30 Under 30" list! Dr. Yaron was co-advised by myself and Dr. Lew Cantley while completing his Ph.D. here.
I hope you enjoy reading about our November accomplishments, including new awards, media coverage of our work, upcoming meetings, and impressive publications by a range of EIPM colleagues.
Thank you again for your continued hard work and dedication to our mission.
Sincerely,
Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.
News Coverage & Awards 
Congratulations to our Director of Bladder Cancer Research Dr. Bishoy Faltas on being awarded a $4 million, seven-year MERIT grantfrom the National Cancer Institute. Unlike conventional grants, there is no application for the MERIT Award, but outstanding researchers who submit grant applications that receive the highest scores are nominated by the NCI. Dr. Faltas also earned the 2023 Society for Basic Urologic Research Young Investigator Award given to SBUR members under the age of 45 who "have made significant contributions to Urologic Research."
Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi and I were named 2023 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers. According to Clarivate, "Highly Cited Researchers have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field(s) of research. Of the world’s population of scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers are 1 in 1,000."
Dr. Howard Fine was interviewed for the article "Do I Need to Worry About Smartphone Radiation? Some studies have linked cellphone use with cancer, so we asked some experts to explain the risk," which appeared in The New York Times on November 14th. 
It was an honor to participate on the "Spoken Word" panel at the Milken Institute's "2023 Future of Health Summit" in Washington, D.C. on November 6th exploring voice biomarkers to detect changes in our health. I was also interviewed on the same topic by STAT News for the article "Experts talk detecting disease from voice biomarkers with AI, privacy concerns," which ran on November 7th. 
Dr. Richard Furman was interviewed for the article "Data Continue to Refine Frontline BTK Inhibitor Selection in CLL," which appeared in OncLive on November 8th. 
The ASCO Post covered new research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (see below) by Dr. Scott T. Tagawa in the article "Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: Efficacy of Anti-PSMA Antibody With Alpha Emitter," on November 21st.
Events
WCM and NYP experts including Dr. Chris Barbieriparticipated in the WCM Urology webinar, "Prostate Cancer: Understanding Causes, Diagnosis and Treatments," on November 16th.
Clinical Director Dr. Cora Sternberg participated in UroToday's new educational Masterclass program, "New Pathways for Treating Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer," on November 8th. Dr. Sternberg also spoke with UroToday for the November 13th news story "The EV-302 Study and the Implications for Metastatic Bladder Cancer Care." 
Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha presented "Weakly-Supervised Tumor Purity Predictions from Frozen H&E Stained Slides," at AMP2023 on November 18th. 
Dr. Pashtoon Kasiparticipated in the Front Line Genomics webinar "Liquid Biopsy for MRD and Resistance Detection," on November 21st. 
Dr. Scott T. Tagawa participated in the "CURE Webinar on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Prostate Cancer," on November 17th.
Publications
"Avelumab first-line maintenance treatment for advanced urothelial carcinoma: review of evidence to guide clinical practice. Overall, level 1 evidence from the JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial, long-term follow-up data, and emerging ‘real-word’ data, support the use of avelumab first-line maintenance as the standard of care in patients with advanced UC that has not progressed with first-line platinum-based chemotherapy," was published in ESMO Open by Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg and colleagues, December 2023. 
"Pan-Cancer Prevalence of Microsatellite Instability-High (MSI-H) Identified by Circulating Tumor DNA and Associated Real-World Clinical Outcomes. The data support use of a well-validated ctDNA assay to detect MSI-H across solid tumors and suggest prolonged PFS in patients treated with IO-containing regimens after detection. Tumor-agnostic, ctDNA-based MSI testing may be reliable for rapid decision making," was published by Dr. Pashtoon Kasi and colleagues in JCO Precision Oncology on November 7th. Dr. Kasialso published the Frontiers in Oncology editorial, "Case reports in gastrointestinal cancers : 2022," on November 16th. 
"Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen–Targeting Alpha Emitter via Antibody Delivery for Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: A Phase I Dose-Escalation Study of 225Ac-J591," was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Dr. Scott T. Tagawa with Drs. Cora N. Sternberg, Ana Molina, Karla Ballman, and David M. Nanus on November 3rd. 
"Plasma metabolomics profiling of 580 patients from an Early Detection Research Network prostate cancer cohort," was published by Dr. Massimo Loda from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Department and EIPM's Dr. Jan Krumsiek, with our colleagues Drs. Elisa Benedetti, Kelsey Chetnik, and Christopher E. Barbieri in Scientific Data on November 25th. 
"Transcriptomic signatures of chronic active antibody-mediated rejection deciphered by RNA sequencing of human kidney allografts," was published on November 29th in Kidney International by myself and colleagues from the WCM Departments of Medicine and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
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