Dear Friend of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine,
Welcome to our third quarterly external newsletter of 2023!
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.
I'll be presenting at several upcoming events this fall, including the Virtual Human Global Summit 2023, at the SUNY Global Center on October 4th; The New York Stem Cell Foundation annual conference on October 24th; and the Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit in early November. These events can help raise our profile, develop important collaborations, and attract new sources of funding to support our mission.
I'm thrilled to share that the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine will host the 20th International Cancer Genome Consortium Scientific Workshop from November 7-9. Please follow our Twitter feed for regular updates on our plans for the Workshop.
It's always a pleasure to have academic and industry colleagues visit us, explore potential collaborations, tour our labs and meet with our team. In September we hosted Dr. Eric K. Oermann, Ass't Prof at NYU's Neurosurgery and Radiology departments, and a few days later Dr. Erandi De Silva (right), Co-Founder & Senior VP of Product Development at Forge Biologics, also stopped by for a visit and tour.
It's been a remarkably productive quarter, with new awards & grants to researchers, new clinical trials initiated, news media coverage of our colleagues, exciting events, and published research in top-tier scientific journals. A sample of this work is highlighted below.
Our important work is only possible because of the financial support we receive from foundations, government agencies, corporate partners, and the individual donors who make all of these discoveries and breakthroughs possible. We thank all of them for their support.
Thank you again for your interest in our work!
Sincerely,
Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.
EIPM Director
News Coverage & Awards 
Team SAMBAI, a collaborative project addressing cancer inequities and headed by myself, former colleague Dr. Melissa B. Davis, WCM colleagues, and partners at 14 research institutions located in 4 countries has been shortlisted for the $25M Cancer Grand Challenges awards!
Dr. Bishoy Faltas has received the NoA of an R01, converted to the prestigious MERIT R37, funding for the next 7 years for his work on "targeting APOBEC3 cytidine deaminases as drivers of resistance in bladder cancer."
WCM and NY-P have together been named a Rare Disease Center of Excellence by the National Organization for Rare Disorders. The designation adds the academic medical center to NORD's collaborative network of 40 participating institutions that research and treat rare diseases. EIPM's Director of Clinical Genetics Dr. Omar Abdul-Rahman steered the rigorous application process that ultimately made our institutions part of a unique, collaborative network dedicated to providing outstanding treatment to patients with rare diseases. 
Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha received the Irma T. Hirschl and Monique Weill-Caulier Research Award. This award "will enable more AI in Medicine research in my lab @WeillCornell, especially related to AI in IVF and Embryology."
Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi received an R01 grant to dissect the impact of BCL2, an antiapoptotic protein that favors the resistance of cancer cells to death imposed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy, on the immunological configuration of treatment naïve and irradiated breast cancer.
Our Associate Director for Precision Immunology Dr. Laura Santambrogio received a $3.6M grant from the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases for a study entitled “Biochemical and functional characterization of a novel anti-inflammatory biogenic amine.” Dr. Santambrogio was also was elected to the American Association of Immunologists’ Nominating Committee, which is dedicated to identifying and recommending outstanding association members as candidates for election to AAI leadership positions.
EIPM Member Dr. Lisa Newman and Dr. Vivian Bea from the Meyer Cancer Center were profiled in the MCC article "WCM Doctors Journey to Africa to Treat Breast Cancer Patients." Dr. Newman said, "This work is my heart and soul," of her calling to care for breast cancer patients that has led her and her colleagues to travel nearly 5,000 miles to Africa several times a year to see patients and help train and supply local doctors and clinics. Her motivation for starting international breast cancer research in Africa was driven by the disparities observed among African American women in the United States." 
EIPM's Scientific Director Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli will lead a Phase II trial of a new immunotherapy for early-stage, newly diagnosed, high-risk, triple-negative breast cancer, in collaboration with BriaCell Therapeutics.
Dr. Manish Shah was interviewed for the article "Zolbetuximab Plus CAPOX Beneficial for Advanced mG/GEJ Adenocarcinoma. Progression-free survival and overall survival prolonged with zolbetuximab plus CAPOX versus placebo plus CAPOX," appeared in HealthDay. Dr. Shah was also interviewed by Oncology Times for the article, "Targeted Treatment Promising for Some Stomach Cancer Patients," about new research he published in Nature Medicine. 
Dr. Allyson Ocean was interviewed for the article, "Vitamin D Deficiency: Symptoms, Causes And Treatments," which appeared in Forbes. 
New research by Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg, "Avelumab First-line Maintenance for Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma: Analysis from JAVELIN Bladder 100 by Duration of First-line Chemotherapy and Interval Before Maintenance," was summarized in UroToday. 
Dr. Jonathan Zippin was interviewed for the NBC Today Show story "Do gray hair reversal serums or supplements actually work? Dermatologists weigh in." 
ScienceDaily published the article, "Mineralization of bone matrix regulates tumor cell growth," recapping research by Dr. Akanksha Verma, myself, and Cornell University investigators published in Nature Biomedical Engineering (below).
Events
Alexandros Sigaras, Director of the EIPM AI-XR Lab, participated in The Wilson Center's "XR for Learning Showcase," focused on demonstrating how VR and AR technology is being used to innovate learning & training. 
Dr. Ekta Khurana presented, "Non-neuroendocrine lineage plasticity in Prostate Cancer," during the Weill Cornell Medicine Cell and Cancer Pathobiology Symposium, hosted by the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and Meyer Cancer Center. 
Dr. Shahin Rafii presented a WCM Physician Scientist Seminar Series talk, "Molecular determinants of vascular heterogeneity for therapeutic organ regeneration."
Dr. Pashtoon Kasi presented "Incorporation of Liquid Biopsies (ctDNA and CTCs) for patients with GI malignancies: Opportunities and Challenges," at the 6th ACTC conference.
Publications
"Evolution of structural rearrangements in prostate cancer intracranial metastases. Median overall survival after the development of intracranial metastasis was 11.2 months." npc Precision Oncology article by current and former EIPM and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department colleagues, including Francesca Khani, Xiaofei Wang, Michael Sigouros, Vincenza Conteduca, David Pisapia, Brian Robinson, Juan Miguel Mosquera, Andrea Sboner, Himisha Beltran, and myself, September 13th. 
"Molecular features of prostate cancer post-neoadjuvant therapy in the Phase 3 CALGB 90203 trial," was published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute by current & former EIPM colleagues Dr. Misha Beltran, Drs. Xiaofei Wang & Andrea Sboner, and Michael Sigouros on September 7, 2023. 
Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi published a number of articles this past quarter, including: "Type I interferon and cancer," in Immunological Reviews; "Chromosomal instability drives immunosuppression and metastatic dissemination," in Cell Research; The Nature Cell Death & Disease commentary, "Cancer stem cell immunoediting by IFNγ;" "A biologic-device combination product delivering tumor-derived antigens elicits immunogenic cell death-associated immune responses against glioblastoma," in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer;" and "BCL2 inhibition reveals a dendritic cell-specific immune checkpoint that controls tumor immunosurveillance," in Cancer Discovery. "Recapitulation of patient-specific 3D chromatin conformation using machine learning," was published by Drs. Ekta Khurana and Duo Xu from the Meyer Cancer Center and EIPM, et al, in Cell Reports Methods. 
"Advanced age in humans and mouse models of glioblastoma show decreased survival from extratumoral influence," was published by Dr. Derek A. Wainwright from Loyola University Chicago, myself and colleagues, in Clinical Cancer Research. "Neoadjuvant botensilimab plus balstilimab response pattern in locally advanced mismatch repair proficient colorectal cancer," was published by the EIPM's Director for Liquid Biopsy Research Dr. Pashtoon Kasi, our colleagues Drs. Manish A. Shah and Allyson J. Ocean, Dr. Erika Hissong from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department, and additional WCM colleagues in Nature's Oncogene. Dr. Kasi also published "Liquid biopsy kinetics and detection of ERBB2 amplification/HER2-positivity in refractory hepatocellular carcinoma," in The Journal of Liquid Biopsy. The Review "Immunotherapy in the Treatment of Localized Genitourinary Cancers," was published by our Director of Bladder Cancer Research Dr. Bishoy M. Faltas in JAMA Oncology.
"Epigenetic memory of coronavirus infection in innate immune cells and their progenitors," was published in Cell by Dr. Steven Z. Josefowicz from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department with current and former EIPM colleagues Dr. André F. Rendeiro, Hiranmayi Ravichandran, Junbum Kim, and myself. "Zolbetuximab plus CAPOX in CLDN18.2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma: the randomized, phase 3 GLOW trial," was published by Dr. Manish Shah and colleagues in Nature Medicine.The article "Bone-Matrix mineralization dampens integrin-mediated mechanosignalling and metastatic progression in breast cancer," was published by Dr. Akanksha Verma and myself, with colleagues from Cornell in Ithaca in Nature Biomedical Engineering. 
"Long-molecule scars of backup DNA repair in BRCA1- and BRCA2-deficient cancers," was published by our former colleague Dr. Marcin Imieliński with EIPM colleagues Michael Sigouros, Jyothi Manohar, Dr. Jones T. Nauseef, myself and Dr. Juan Miguel Mosquera from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM in Nature. 
Dr. Jan Krumsiek led a team of researchers who recently published an article in Nature Metabolism discussing a tumor metabolism atlas that offers a new way to discover cancer mechanisms, this work was recently featured in a Weill Cornell Medicine Newsroom article.
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