January 2026 EIPM Director's Memo
Dear Friends & Members of the Englander Institute,
We recently profiled our Director of Ex Vivo Models, Dr. Ben Hopkins (right), to explain how his team builds organoid models of tumors to test different therapeutics, aiming to find new treatments and improve patient care. The overarching goal is to translate research findings into the clinic to benefit patients. We hope you enjoy the interview!
We are very happy to announce that the application portal has opened for our 2026 Summer Program, administered with our colleagues from the Meyer Cancer Center! Click here to sign-up for the January 12th information session on Zoom to learn tips and tricks for writing and submitting a strong application. Click here to access the application, which closes on January 19th. Thanks in advance for sharing this information with the promising high school and college students in your life.
I hope you enjoy reading about our recent departmental accomplishments, including news media coverage of our work, interesting & engaging departmental events, information on our new AI Clinic, and impressive publications in top-tier journals like Nature Biotechnology.
Thank you again for your continued hard work and dedication to our mission, and best of luck for a happy, healthy & productive New Year!
Sincerely,
Olivier Elemento, Ph.D.
News Coverage & Awards
Congratulations to our colleagues, Drs. Olivier Elemento, Cora Sternberg, Bishoy Faltas, Jan Krumsiek, Iman Hajirasouliha, whose paper, "Leading the Transformation: A proposed National Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the National Institutes of Health," was listed as a Top Paper on SSRN's Top Downloads in the category of Human Health & Disease eJournals!
"Health Data Marketplace - Challenges, Possibilities, and the Path Forward: ConV2X Decentralized Health Event Podcast," a new Blockchain in Healthcare Today podcast featuring Dr. Olivier Elemento, with experts from Accrete.ai and Nav.AI., broadcast on December 6th.
"Why Medical Schools Need Dedicated AI Departments. A Department of AI would provide methods expertise from bench to bedside. And it can contribute directly to clinical operations and revenue, not just research. Academic medical centers have clinical data and domain expertise that industry lacks." OncoDaily opinion article by our Director, Olivier Elemento, Ph.D., December 19th.
Events
We are looking for EIPM Journal Club speakers for in-person meetings (in either Belfer 1401 or Greenberg Y1301). Topics can vary, including but not limited to: precision medicine, genetics, and artificial intelligence in medicine, among other hot button issues in top tier journals. We are open to all ideas to promote lively discussions with varying viewpoints (rather than a summary of the paper). Available dates: March 12th or 26th; April 9th, 23rd or 30th; May 7th or 28th; June 4th or 11th. Please contact @Bhavneet Bhinder or @Suzanne Jlelaty with questions or suggestions.
We are excited to announce the upcoming launch of the AI Clinic, hosted by EIPM. These bi-weekly one-hour sessions will be held in-person (either in the WGC ICB Conference Room or Belfer 1401, depending on availability) to enhance how we use LLMs for complex tasks, including coding. They will serve as a collaborative space for hands-on troubleshooting, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning."
We are currently seeking Super-Users who demonstrate expertise in coding and experience with AI tools such as GPT-5/Codex, Claude Sonnet 4.5/Claude Code, and Gemini 2.5 Pro. If you are interested in attending AI Clinic Meetings, please fill out this form. Please feel free to reach out to Victoria Cummings (vjc4001@med.cornell.edu) directly with any inquiries, questions, or comments.
Publications
"A plain language summary of the TROPiCS-04 study: sacituzumab govitecan use after platinum-based chemotherapy and immunotherapy in people with locally advanced or metastatic cancer of the bladder, urethra, or upper urinary tract." Future Oncology, November 23rd by our colleagues, Drs. Scott T. Tagawa and Clinical Director Cora N. Sternberg.
"Resolving the mysteries of brain clearance and immune surveillance," was published in Neuron, a Cell Press journal, on December 3rd by our Associate Director for Precision Immunology Dr. Laura Santambrogio.
"Elevated Salivary Theobromine and Long-Term Improvement of Periodontal Health in Two Cohort Studies. The results were successfully replicated in the SHIP-START data and extended to a lower clinical attachment loss." The Journal of Clinical Periodontology by Dr. Karsten Suhre on December 12th.
"Standardized metrics for assessment and reproducibility of imaging-based spatial transcriptomics datasets. The authors establish best practices and metrics to evaluate and integrate imaging-based multi-omics data from single cells into spatial transcriptomics to spatial proteomics." Published in Nature Biotechnology by our colleagues Drs. Roberto De Gregorio, our Director of Innovation Alicia Alonso and Shauna Lee Houlihan on December 3rd.
"Quantitative HER2 profiling on circulating tumor cells using an EpCAM-independent platform in metastatic breast cancer," was published in Cancer Cell International on December 24th by our EIPM colleagues, including Jyothi Manohar, MPH, Director Olivier Elemento, Ph.D., Eleni Andreopoulou, M.D., Scientific Director Massimo Cristofanilli, M.D., and Carolina Reduzzi, Ph.D. 
"Integrative Metabolomics of Targeted and Non-Targeted Analyses in T2D Progression," was published in Diabetes Care on December 3rd by Dr. Karsten Suhre.
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