Englander Institute for Precision Medicine

EIPM's Fourth Quarter 2024 External Newsletter!

News for those who signed up on our website to receive EIPM information!

EIPM's Fourth Quarter 2024 External Newsletter


December 31, 2024


Dear Friend of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine,

Welcome to our fourth quarterly external newsletter of 2024!

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. 

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. 

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. 
EIPM Director


News Coverage & Awards 
Recent research in Cancer Cell by our colleague Dr. Rohit Chandwani was covered in an October 2nd WCM Newsroom article, "Researchers Develop Insights into KRAS Mutations in Pancreatic Cancers," and in Drug Target Review on October 4th. 

Dr. Lisa Newman was interviewed for the ABC News story, "Amid a rise in cases, young women diagnosed with breast cancer speak out. The steepest rise in new breast cancer cases is among women under 50," that ran on October 8th. 

Dr. Christopher Barbieri was interviewed for the article, "What to Know About Today's Best Prostate Cancer Treatments. Why there are so many, and how they differ," that appeared in Men's Health on October 7th. 

Research recently published in Nature Communications by Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha and colleagues was covered by the WCM NewsroomThe EngineerCornell Chronicle, and other news outlets. 
 

Our colleagues Drs. Silvia Formenti, Manish Shah, and myself have been recognized by Clarivate as a 2024 Highly Cited Researchers who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field(s) of research!

Please join us in congratulating Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg on being invited to become a European School of Oncology college mentor for their 2025 virtual mentorship program! She will soon mentor students from Turkey and Romania in urothelial cancer, prostate cancer, and precision medicine topics. 

Congratulations to our Chief Research Officer Dr. Bishoy Faltas on his recent CTSC Pilot Award for his breakthrough study published in Nature, "The Interplay of Mutagenesis and ecDNA Shapes Urothelial Cancer Evolution," and covered by the WCM Newsroom

Our Meyer Cancer Center and EIPM colleague Dr. Ashley Laughney was featured in a great new WCM Impact Magazine article, "The Dark Side of STING," on how one immune protein can hinder — or help — cancer. 

"One patient’s mission to support other young women with breast cancer. A new study says advanced breast cancer is on the rise in the U.S. in women under 40, especially among Black women." Dr. Lisa Newman discusses with Good Morning America, December 16th. 

"Neurology is becoming a ‘truly interventional specialty,’ ANA president says. Dr. M. Elizabeth Ross, president of the American Neurological Association [and an EIPM Member], spoke with Healio about her favorite takeaway from the ANA Annual Meeting in Orlando." HEALIO, December 16th. 

"Time-Lapse AI Model Enhances IVF Embryo Selection. This is a fully automated and more objective method compared to prior approaches, and the larger amount of time-lapse imaging data it uses can generate greater predictive power,” said Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha.  NVIDIA Developer, December 12th.

The WCM Newsroom article "Landmark AI Project Harnesses Voice to Diagnose Disease, Releases First Data," explores how EIPM researchers led by Director Dr. Olivier Elemento and colleagues, with investigators from USF Health, have reached a significant milestone by publishing the first version of their clinically validated voice dataset to an online artificial intelligence platform. 


Events
Dr. Olivier Elemento spoke at the Harvard School of Public Health's 18th Annual PQG Conference, "AI for Genomics & Health" that took place October 17th & 18th. 

Dr. Pinkal Desai presented "Clinical and genomic characterization of secondary myeloid neoplasms," during the Lymphoma, Leukemia & Myeloma Congresswhich took place in NYC from October 16-19th. 

Dr. Juan Miguel Mosquera from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM participated in the International Academy of Pathology (IAP) meeting at the end of October in Cancún, México, where he chaired the Companion Meeting Symposium of the Ibero-American Association for Molecular Pathology, affiliated with the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP); presented "Whole-genome sequencing of a pan-cancer cohort: Molecular signatures and biomarkers;" and chaired the proffered papers section in Molecular Pathology.

On November 15th EIPM's AI-XR engineer Sandhya Sriram worked with our colleague Alexandros Sigaras on a WCM Virtual Healthcare Symposium that explored leveraging XR in Endotracheal Intubation. This important work included an exciting collaboration with Jonathan St. George WCM's Emergency Dept. and colleagues from @WCMVirtualCare and beyond!

A news story recapped the 18th annual conference of The Program in Quantitative Genomics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, held October 17–18. The event featured presentations by experts including Olivier Elemento, Ph.D., a panel discussion, and poster session where researchers addressed both the potential benefits and risks of using AI to advance health.

Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D. Chaired the session "Artificial Intelligence in Hematology: From Generative AI to Ethics & Apps," during the 66th ASH Annual Meeting in San Diego on Dec. 7th at 4 pm with panelists Drs. James Zou, Camille Nebeker and Claudia Haferlach. 

Sigaras and Sandhya Sriram participated in the "Immersive Media in Medicine Symposium," at Cornell in Ithaca on December 12th, speaking on panels, providing Virtual Reality demonstrations, leading workshops, networking and more!


Publications
"The interplay of mutagenesis and ecDNA shapes urothelial cancer evolution," was published in Nature on October 9th by the EIPM's Chief Research Officer Dr. Bishoy Faltas, with Drs. Olivier Elemento, David Wilkes, Majd Al Assaad, Scott Tagawa,  David Nanus, Cora N. Sternberg, Ana MolinaEIPM colleagues Michael SigourosJyothi Manohar, Jenna Moyer, Alissa Semaan, Sandra Cohen, Florencia Madorsky Rowdo; and Drs. Giorgio Inghirami, Juan Miguel Mosquera, and Andrea Sboner from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Department & the EIPM. The paper also attracted news media coverage by SciTech DailyThe ASCO PostInside Precision Medicine, and Head Topics.

"The hallmarks of cancer immune evasion," was published in Cancer Cell on October 10th by Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi and colleagues.   

"Management of Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer. Report from the 2024 Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference (APCCC)," was published in European Urology on October 11th by our Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg and colleagues. 

"Whole genome sequencing elucidates etiological differences in MCPyV-negative Merkel cell carcinoma," was published in Pathology--Research and Practice on October 20th by Dr. Carla Stephan from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department; with Drs. Majd Al Assaad, Andrea Sboner, and Juan Miguel Mosquera from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM; and our EIPM colleagues Michael Sigouros, Jyothi Manohar, and Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D. 

"Comparative brain metabolomics reveals shared and distinct metabolic alterations in Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy," was published in Alzheimers & Dementia on October 22nd by Drs. Richa Batra and Jan Krumsiek.

"Longitudinal analysis of the gut microbiota during anti-PD-1 therapy reveals stable microbial features of response in melanoma patients," was published in Cell Host & Microbe on October 30th by our colleague Dr. Laura Santambrogio.

"Immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients with metastatic triple-negative inflammatory breast cancer (INCORPORATE): An international cohort study," was published in the European Journal of Cancer on October 27th by our Scientific Director Massimo Cristofanilli and colleagues.

"ChromaFold predicts the 3D contact map from single-cell chromatin accessibility," was published in Nature Communications on November 1st by Dr. Dylan R. McNally.

"High-fidelity pose estimation for real-time extended reality (XR) visualization for cardiac catheterization," was published in Scientific Reports on November 6th by Alexandros Sigaras & Sandhya Sriram, with colleagues from WCM's Department of Radiology and Division of Cardiology.

"Deficiency of metabolic regulator PKM2 activates the pentose phosphate pathway and generates TCF1+ progenitor CD8+T cells to improve immunotherapy" was published in Nature Immunology on September 26th by Dr. Vivek Mittal with Drs. Liron Yoffe, Enrique Podaza, Timothy E. McGraw, Nasser K. Altorki, andOlivier Elemento. This paper was also covered by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

"Whole Genome Profiling of Rare Pediatric Thoracic Tumors Elucidates a YAP1::LEUTX Fusion in an Unclassified Biphasic Embryonal Neoplasm," was published in Pathology--Research and Practice on November 20th by Dr. Georgi Lukose from WCM's Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department; Drs. Majd Al Assaad, David C. Wilkes, Andrea Sboner, and Juan Miguel Mosquera from WCM's Pathology dept. & the EIPM; with EIPM's Alissa Semaan and Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D. 

"Increased translation driven by non-canonical EZH2 creates a synthetic vulnerability in enzalutamide-resistant prostate cancer," was published in Nature Communications on November 20th by Drs. Shankha S. Chatterjee, Juan F. Linares, Tania Cid-Diaz, and Angeles Duran from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department, with departmental colleagues; and Drs. Francesca Khani, Juan Miguel Mosquera, Brian D. Robinson, and David Rickman from Pathology and the EIPM; and with our EIPM colleagues Jenna Moyer and Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D. 

"Pooled CRISPR screens with joint single-nucleus chromatin accessibility and transcriptome profiling. [The authors] identify key differentiation genes in a rare pediatric cancer and establish ZNHIT1 as a potential target for cancer reprogramming therapy," was published in Nature Biotechnology by EIPM's Dr. Jeffrey Greenfield and colleagues, November 21st. 

"Tissue-resident memory cells in antitumoral immunity and cancer immunotherapy," was published in Current Opinion in Immunology by Dr. Niroshana Anandasabapathy and colleagues on October 31st (too late for the last newsletter). 

"Whole genome profiling of primary and metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma unravels significant molecular events," was published in Pathology--Research and Practice on November 29th by Dr. Taylor Kalomeris from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department; Drs. Majd Al Assaad, Jesus Delgado-de la Mora, Andrea Sboner, and Juan Miguel Mosquera from Pathology and the EIPM; and Jyothi Manohar, Michael Sigouros, and Dr. Olivier Elemento from the EIPM.

"Impact of radiotherapy dose, fractionation and immunotherapeutic partner in a mouse model of HR+ mammary carcinogenesis," was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on December 11th by Drs. Bhavneet Bhinder and Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.

"Cannonical androgen response element motifs are tumor suppressive regulatory elements in the prostate," was published in Nature Communications on December 13th by Drs. Francesca Khani, Brian D. Robinson,  and Andrea Sboner from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM, and the EIPM's Dr. Christopher Barbieri.  

"EZH2 inhibition enhances T cell immunotherapies by inducing lymphoma immunogenicity and improving T cell function," was published in Cancer Cell on December 5th by Dr. Giorgio Inghirami from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department & the EIPM, with colleagues. 

"Emerging molecular phenotypes and potential therapeutic targets in esophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma unearthed by whole genome and transcriptome analyses," was published in Pathology--Research and Practice on December 19th by Drs. Majd Al Assaad, Erika Hissong, Justin Mclee, Andrea Sboner and Juan Miguel Mosquera from the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department and the EIPM, and the EIPM's Marvel Tranquille, Jyothi Manohar, Michael Sigouros, with Drs. Allyson J. Ocean, Olivier Elemento and Manish Shah.

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