January 2024 EIPM Director's Memo
Dear Members of the Englander Institute,
Thank you all for a very productive December!
It was so exciting to end 2023 with the announcement of the 'transformational' gift to the EIPM from Israel Englander, and the acquisition of new office space in the Sotheby's building that will become our new home in the coming years. 
And it was a pleasure to host WCM Dean Robert Harrington at the EIPM on December 15th for a briefing by myself, and Drs. Cora Sternberg, Bishoy Faltas, Andrea Sboner, Johnathan Zippin and Benjamin D. Hopkins. We later toured labs and met with colleagues Hiranmayi Ravichandran, Ilkay Us, Cynthia Cheung and Jeffrey Catalano. Thanks to everyone who attended our EIPM Town Hall event and holiday party, also on the 15th. 
I hope everyone will check out our new Englander Institute for Precision Medicine website! The new site brings a lot more flexibility for presenting content, has improved navigation, and brings us in-line with WCM ITS best practices for new websites. 
Our colleagues in External Affairs are looking for subjects to interview for two upcoming social media opportunities, National Mentoring Month in Januaryand Black History Month in February. If you're interested in participating please contact Peter Cleary (CWID: ptc4001).
I hope you enjoy reading about our December 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 Dr. Margaret Ross who received a $3.5M grant from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for a study entitled “Understanding Genetic Complexity in Spina Bifida.”
Congratulations to Associate Director for Precision Immunology Laura Santambrogio on earning an NIH R01 grant as co-Investigator with PI Theresa Lu to study "Understanding the Biological Mechanisms of Lupus Disease."
Dr. Jonathan Zippin was interviewed for the article "Supplements to Prevent Gray Hair: Do They Really Work?" which appeared in Very Well Health on December 18th. 
A recent Oncogene paper by our Director of Liquid Biopsy Research Dr. Pashtoon Kasi has been accessed more than 10,000 times, making it one of the most popular Oncogene papers of the year! Dr. Kasi also spoke with Cancer Today Magazine for the article "The Promise of Liquid Biopsies," on December 3rd. 
Our Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternbergparticipated in a video interview with UroToday on "The EV-302 Study and the Implications for Metastatic Bladder Cancer Care," on December 2nd. Dr. Sternberg also attended the 5th International Prostate Cancer Symposium & World Congress of Urologic Oncology at Mount Sinai and presented "Next Gen Anti-Androgen Therapy for Metastatic Hormone Sensitive Prostate Cancer," on December 8th. 
Drs. Lorenzo Galluzzi and Pinkal Desai participated in the Meyer Cancer Center's quarterly series, "Cancer and Aging," on December 5th.
UroToday published an article, "SUO 2023: Defining the Biology of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma and How This Shapes Therapy," that focused on a presentation by Dr. Bishoy Faltas at the 2023 SUO annual meeting. Dr. Faltas also spoke with GU Oncology Now's Dr. Christopher Wallis about the genomics of upper tract urothelial carcinoma in a video entitled: "Defining the Biology of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma and Therapy Implications." Finally, Oncology Times covered the awarding of the 2023 Society for Basic Urologic Research Young Investigator Award to Dr. Bishoy M. Faltas on December 20th.
Dr. Majd Al Assaad from the WCM Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Department and the EIPM presented a Precision Medicine Research Conference talk, "Whole Genome Sequencing of de novo Small Cell Prostate Cancer and CRPC: Molecular Tumor Board," on December 14th. 
Scientific Director Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli and colleagues including Dr. Carolina Reduzzi presented posters at SABCS23 with new data on ctDNA, circulating Extracellular Vesicles and CDK4/6i biomarkers of response.
EIPM researchers Drs. Pashtoon Kasi, Manish Shah, Nasser Altorki, Vivek Mittal, and Niroshana Anandasabapathy were interviewed for the article "Cancer Vaccines' Promise: The quest for cancer vaccines is finally turning a corner, accelerated by strides in immunotherapy and Covid vaccine technology," that appeared in the Weill Cornell Medicine fall 2023 magazine Impact.
Events
Associate Director for Precision Immunology Laura Santambrogio was an invited speaker at the recent Neoepitope International Forum.
The EIPM Molecular Aging Institute's Clinical Director Dr. Pinkal Desaipresented two talks at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, "Achieving 'Next-Level' Care in AML: Conversations on Targeted Platforms, Emerging Immunotherapies," and "Implications for Precision Medicine, and Molecular and Cytogenetic Characteristics of Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome in Patients Exposed to Chemotherapy and/or Radiation." 
Bioinformatics analyst Kathryn Gorski presented "An event-driven solution to integrate pipeline executions within complex informatics infrastructures," at the Nextflow SUMMIT 2023 on November 30th in Boston.
Publications
"Molecular determinants of the crosstalk between endosomal microautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy," was published in Cell Reports on December 5th by our Associate Director for Precision Immunology Dr. Laura Santambrogio.
"False-Positive Liquid Biopsy Assays Secondary to Overlapping Aberrant Methylation from Non-Cancer Disease States," was published in Case Reports in Oncology on December 5th by our Director for Liquid Biopsy Research Dr. Pashtoon Kasi.
"NIPBL::NACC1 Fusion Hepatic Carcinoma," was published in The American Journal of Surgical Pathology on December 4th by Drs. Erika Hissong, Majd Al Assaad, Alissa Semaan, MS, Dr. Christine Orr, Jyothi Manohar, MPH, Michael Sigouros, BS, David Wilkes, PhD, Andrea Sboner, PhD, Olivier Elemento, PhD, and Drs. José Jessurun and Juan Miguel Mosquera from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the EIPM. 
"Circulating tumor DNA enables sensitive detection of actionable gene fusions and rearrangements across cancer types," was published in Clinical Cancer Research on December 7th by Dr. Pashtoon Kasi and colleagues. 
"Co-occurring BRCA2/SPOP Mutations Predict Exceptional Poly (ADP-ribose) Polymerase Inhibitor Sensitivity in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer," was published in European Urology Oncology on December 9th by Clinical Director Dr. Cora N. Sternberg and Panagiotis J. Vlachostergios.
"Neoadjuvant durvalumab plus radiation versus durvalumab alone in stages I-III non-small cell lung cancer: survival outcomes and molecular correlates of a randomized phase II trial," was published in Nature Communications on December 19th by Dr. Nasser K. Altorki, with EIPM colleagues Drs. Ashish Saxena, Bhavneet Bhinder, Vivek Mittal, Sylvia C. Formenti and Olivier Elemento. 
"Multiscale protein networks systematically identify aberrant protein interactions and oncogenic regulators in seven cancer types," was published in the Journal of Hematology & Oncology on December 15th by Dr. Benjamin Hopkins with Dr. Richard Farias.
"Bacterial antigens unleash tumor-targeting immunity," was published in Cell Host & Microbe on December 13th by Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi and colleagues. 
"Epinephrine inhibits PI3Kα via the Hippo kinases," was published in Cell Reports on December 26th by our colleagues Drs. Tomer M. Yaron, Emily M. Huntsman, and Benjamin D. Hopkins. 
"NAK-associated protein 1/NAP1 activates TBK1 to ensure accurate mitosis and cytokinesis," was published in The Journal of Cell Biology on December 7th by Drs. Tomer M. Yaron and Emily M. Huntsman.
"A reversible epigenetic memory of inflammatory injury controls lineage plasticity and tumor initiation in the mouse pancreas," was published in Developmental Cell on December 5th by Drs. Andre F. Rendeiro, Doron Betel, and Olivier Elemento. 
"Cellular residual disease (CRD) in early breast cancer –Expanding the concept of minimal residual disease monitoring?," was published in The Journal of Liquid Biopsy on December 15th by Scientific Director Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli and colleagues.
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