June 2024 EIPM Director's Memo
Dear Members of the Englander Institute,
Thank you all for a very productive past six weeks!
On May 6th I was honored to led a delegation from the Indian Council of Medical Research on a tour of our labs and introduce them to staff. Thanks to our colleagues who participated and organized the visit, including Benjamin Hopkins, Jenna Moyer, Ilkay Us, Omar Alawa, Hiranmayi Ravichandran, Amanda Reid, Victoria Cummings and Marie Normile.
Please help spread the word: Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg is still recruiting people aged 50 and older, with no active cancer in the last 3 years, to participate, at no cost, in the Grail Pathfinder study for early-detection of cancer, which was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal. For more information about the study please email: grailstudy@med.cornell.edu
Our colleague Dr. Jan Krumsiek and partners from Nightingale Health visited the EIPM, met with senior staff, and toured our facilities on May 30th.
Congratulations to EIPM staff that presented at the ASCO conference, May 31 – June 4, 2024, including Drs. Cora N. Sternberg, Lisa Newman, Manish Shah, Scott T. Tagawa and Pashtoon Kasi. I hope you'll join me in congratulating Dr. Newman who received one of ASCO’s special awards, the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award, recognizing clinicians and scientists who have globally reshaped cancer care.
As many of you know, I take great pleasure in mentoring the next generation of researchers. So it was a real pleasure to be named Primary Mentor for Dr. Joseph Scarpa, an instructor in anesthesiology, on his recent 2024 grant from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research for his project: "The Response of Circulating Tumor Cells to Surgical Resection and Intraoperative Ketamine in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer."
I hope you enjoy reading about our recent departmental accomplishments, including new awards, media coverage of our work, participation in major conferences & 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 
Dr. Niroshana Anandasabapathy explored how advancements in detection and treatment are improving the fight against melanoma in a guest article, "Melanoma Monday: From Early Detection to Cutting-Edge Treatments," that appeared in Targeted Oncology on May 6th.
Dr. Bishoy Faltas' recent promotion was covered in an ASCO Post article, "Bishoy Faltas, MD, Named Chief Research Officer of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine," on May 10th. The Oncology Times also published a similar article "Bishoy Faltas, MD, Named Chief Research Officer of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine," on June 4th.
Congratulations to our Director of Colon Cancer Research and Director of Liquid Biopsy Research Dr. Pashtoon Kasi on earning the 2024 Yvonne Award in the "Challenging the Status Quo Category," from OncoDaily on May 29th at ASCO24! Dr. Kasi also discussed "Tumor Trash or Treasure? Liquid Biopsy for Colorectal Cancer," as a guest on The MedScape Colorectal Cancer Podcast on May 1st. And Dr. Kasi was also interviewed by OncLive TV for the May 17th segment "Dr. Kasi on the Potential Implications of ctDNA presence in Colorectal Cancer."
"GoT-ChA! - Assessing How Mutations Affect DNA Structure in Single Cells," was published in LabRoots on May 10th and covered new research published in Nature by Dr. Dan Landau (see below). 
Dr. Cora N. Sternberg was a guest of Dr. Alicia Morgans' UroToday's video blog on May 1st to discuss "Navigating the Shift to Enfortumab Vedotin and Pembrolizumab in Advanced Urothelial Cancer: Key Considerations for Clinicians."
Dr. Scott Tagawa's 2024 ASCO presentation on the final results of a phase I/II dose-escalation study of fractionated dose 177Lu-PSMA-617 for progressive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) was covered by UroToday on June 4th. Dr. Tagawa was interviewed by Targeted Oncology for the May 28th article "Antibody-Drug Conjugates Continue to Transform the Oncology Landscape," and for the May 29th article "ADCs Change the Game for Cancer Treatment."
Events
Dr. Pinkal Desai and colleagues presented research on the genetic predisposition to Myelodysplastic Syndromes during a May 13th workshop hosted by the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Biology.
Director Olivier Elemento presented "Genomes, Avatars and Al: The Future of Personalized Medicine," during the MOGAM 40th Anniversary Symposium in Seoul on May 10th.
EIPM Drs. Nasser Altorki, Benjamin D. Hopkins, Laura Santambrogio, Ashish Saxena, and Liron Yoffe presented during the 2nd Lung Cancer Retreat on May 10th, hosted by our friends from the Meyer Cancer Center and Weill Cornell's Neuberger Berman Lung Cancer Research Center.
Dr. Scott T. Tagawa presented, during the trial-in-progress session of the American Urological Association's annual meeting, on a clinical trial opening soon at Weill Cornell evaluating the radio antibody-drug conjugate TLX591 for metastatic castration-resistant Prostate Cancer.
Dr. Carolina Reduzzi, Research Associate and the Director of the Cristofanilli Laboratory, spoke at the 20th Anniversary of Circulating Tumor Cells in Granada, Spain from May 24-25, 2024.
Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha spoke at the 2024 Starr Cancer Consortium Retreat at Cold Spring Harbor on May 13th and presented "Weakly-supervised tumor purity prediction from H&E stained slides." At the same retreat Dr. Bishoy Faltas presented "Defining the functional impact of composite mutations in oncogene-driven urothelial cancer using circulating- tumor DNA and single-cell sequencing," on May 14th.
Alexandros Sigaras presented "Transforming Health Professional Education, Research & Care at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar," during the June 8-10 Precision Health Innovations and Education conference in São Paulo, Brazil. 
Clinical Director Dr. Cora Sternberg presented talks on prostate cancer and urothelial cancer at the 20th Annual Challenges in Laparoscopy & Robotics Conference held in Rome from June 5-7th.
Chief Research Officer Dr. Bishoy Faltas presented "The Interplay between Mutagenesis and Extrachromosomal DNA Shapes Urothelial Cancer Evolution," during the AACR Bladder Cancer Plenary session of the AACR Conference on May 20th.
Dr. Pashtoon Kasi and colleagues presented the abstract, "Feasibility of implementing whole genome sequencing into routine oncology care," during the 2024 ASCO annual conference on May 29th. Dr. Kasi also chaired the ASCO session "MRD-Guided Strategies to Optimize Therapeutic Interventions," on June 3rd.
Publications
"Final Results from SAUL, a Single-arm International Study of Atezolizumab in Unselected Patients with Pretreated Locally Advanced/Metastatic Urinary Tract Carcinoma," was published in European Urology Focus on June 4th by Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg.
"Mapping genotypes to chromatin accessibility profiles in single cells," was published in Nature on May 8th by Dr. Dan Landau and colleagues.
"Substrate displacement of CK1 C-termini regulates kinase specificity," was published in Science Advances on May 10th by Dr. Tomer M. Yaron-Barir and colleagues. 
"The intrinsic substrate specificity of the human tyrosine kinome," was published in Nature on May 8th by Drs. Tomer M Yaron-Barir, Emily M. Huntsman, Alexander Kerelsky, Daniel M. Cizin, andBenjamin M. Cohen, from the Meyer Cancer Center and the EIPM, with EIPM Director Olivier Elemento. 
"Risk of meningomyelocele mediated by the common 22q11.2 deletion," was published in Science on May 2nd by Dr. Dolores J. Lamb and colleagues.
"The potential and pitfalls of large language models in molecular biosciences," was published in The BioChemist on May 16th by Drs. Chengqi Xu and Director Olivier Elemento.
"PARP7 and nucleic acid-driven oncosuppression," was published as a Commentary in Cellular and Molecular Immunology on June 4th by Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi and colleagues from WCM's Department of Radiation Oncology.
"Two-pore channel 2 is required for soluble adenylyl cyclase-dependent regulation of melanosomal pH and melanin synthesis," was published in Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research on June 6th by Dr. Jonathan Zippin and colleagues.
"Role of the afferent lymph as an immunological conduit to analyze tissue antigenic and inflammatory load," will be published in Cell Reports on June 25th, by Dr. Laura Santambrogio and colleagues. 
"The ribotoxic stress response drives UV-mediated cell death," was published in Cell on June 5th by Drs. Tomer M. Yaron-Barir and Emily M. Huntsman.
"Determining the ERK-regulated phosphoproteome driving KRAS-mutant cancer," was published in Science on June 7th by Drs. Emily M. Huntsman and Tomer M. Yaron, with colleagues.
"Epigenetic and proteomic signatures associate with clonal hematopoiesis expansion rate," was published in Nature Agingon June 4th by Dr. Pinkal Desai and colleagues.
"COX2-dependent suppression of anticancer immunity," was published in Trends in Cancer on May 30th by Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi and colleagues.
"Developing a predictive model for metastatic potential in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor," was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism on May 31st by Yajas Shah, MS, and Drs. Scott Kulm and Director Olivier Elemento. 
"Promises and challenges of populational proteomics in health and disease," was published in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics on May 16th by Dr. Karsten Suhre and colleagues.
# # #