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Researchers Receive Defense Grant for Gynecologic Cancer Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have received grants from the U.S. Department of Defense.FigureSophia George, PhD, Associate Professor in the Division of Gynecological Oncology and Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Matthew Schlumbrecht, MD, MPH, Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Director for the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Program, will lead research into the genetics of gynecologic cancer in Black women. Schlumbrecht will also lead a second study on endometrial cancer awareness among different populations of Black women.Sophia George, PhD: Sophia George, PhDMatthew Schlumbrecht, MD, MPH: Matthew Schlumbrecht, MD, MPH“Endometrial cancer has been understudied for a very long time,” Schlumbrecht said. “There are also clear disparities in experience and outcome with this cancer.” Black women are more likely to get aggressive forms of endometrial cancer, and they are more likely to have poorer outcomes than women of other races. The researchers aim to use the new funding to study and eventually identify women at high risk for the disease. “This hasn't really been done before—to survey people who are dying of this aggressive disease at disproportionate rates compared to others in the population,” George said. “There's a real benefit to understanding what's happening to women in our community, as well as globally.” The collaborating scientists previously found that country of origin mattered for endometrial cancer survival among Black women, with Haitian women having lower rates of survival than Black women born in the U.S. or Jamaica. Now, they want to uncover the genetics behind those differences, working with community partners in Nigeria, the Bahamas, and South Florida. To better understand the prevalence of hereditary endometrial cancer in different Black populations, the researchers will examine both tumor mutations and mutations in noncancerous cells in Black women with endometrial cancer who were born in the U.S., those born in the Caribbean, and those from West Africa. Overall, 5-10 percent of endometrial cancers are thought to be linked to inherited mutations, but Schlumbrecht said most hereditary studies of this cancer have been conducted on primarily white populations—the numbers may be different in other racial groups. Schlumbrecht hopes to use the data from this project to help raise physician awareness and competency. Although there are clear guidelines for how doctors should test and care for women with postmenopausal bleeding, many physicians may not realize how the symptom is perceived in different communities. Some women may not see it as a problem or may be embarrassed to seek care, Schlumbrecht said. “We need to be able to say to them, this is what the patients are telling us that they understand, this is why they're not going to the doctor,” he said. “When they actually make the choice to go to the clinic, we have to be aware of their lived experiences.” Nickolas Papadopoulos, PhD, Named Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Prevention Research Nickolas Papadopoulos, PhD, was announced by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) as Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Prevention Research. He will serve as editor-in-chief alongside Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, FAACR, who has served with distinction as Editor-in-Chief of the journal since 2018.Nickolas Papadopoulos, PhD: Nickolas Papadopoulos, PhD“The AACR is thrilled to welcome Dr. Papadopoulos as editor-in-chief of Cancer Prevention Research,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), Chief Executive Officer of the AACR. “His expertise in cancer genetics, as well as his extensive experience utilizing liquid biopsies for the early detection of cancer, makes him exceptionally well-suited for this position and for Cancer Prevention Research's focus on translational science and early detection.” Papadopoulos is Professor of Oncology and Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of Translational Genetics in the Ludwig Center at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Papadopoulos is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in identifying the genetic factors underlying hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, a prevalent form of hereditary cancer. “It is an honor to be selected as editor-in-chief of Cancer Prevention Research,” Papadopoulos said. “I look forward to working with Dr. DuBois to attract and publish high-quality content that will further our scientific understanding of all aspects of cancer detection, interception, and prevention. I am especially excited to expand the journal's coverage of blood tests and other forms of liquid biopsy as screening tools for detecting cancer early.” Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR, Elected AACR President-Elect Lillian L. Siu, MD, has been elected by The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) as the AACR President-Elect for 2024-2025.Lillian L. Siu, MD: Lillian L. Siu, MD“I am deeply honored to serve as the AACR President-Elect for 2024-2025,” Siu said. “I am excited to have the opportunity to connect with AACR members globally, working collaboratively to translate promising cancer research into meaningful improvements in patient care. Additionally, I am thrilled to play a part in expanding AACR's educational initiatives through workshops and conferences on a global scale.” Siu is a senior medical oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 1998 and has been Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto since 2009. She is Director of the Phase I Program and Co-Director of the Bras and Family Drug Development Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and holds the BMO Chair in Precision Genomics (2016-2026). She is also the Clinical Lead for the Tumor Immunotherapy Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Throughout her career, Siu has made crucial contributions to anticancer drug development and translational and clinical research. Her innovative research dedicated to optimizing clinical trial design and execution has resulted in the accelerated discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and molecularly targeted therapeutics for patients with head and neck cancers as well as gastrointestinal malignancies. “Dr. Siu's visionary leadership as a researcher and clinician has led to transformative advancements in cancer research and patient care,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), Chief Executive Officer of the AACR. “Moreover, her extensive service and sincere dedication to the AACR have been truly remarkable. We are thrilled that Dr. Siu has been elected to serve as the AACR's 2024-2025 President-Elect and 2025-2026 President. We look forward to working with her in support of our shared mission to prevent and cure all cancers.” Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH, to Lead Mount Sinai Department of Public Health The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai established a new Department of Public Health under the leadership of Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH. She is also Horace W. Goldsmith Professor in Children's Health Research at Icahn Mount Sinai, Professor of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Dean for Translational Biomedical Sciences.Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH: Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH“For too long, there's been a disconnect between the research and educational focus in schools of public health and schools of medicine,” Wright said. “Our changing climate, health disparities, social stressors, pollution, access to healthy food, and other pressing societal issues are traditionally studied in public health schools rather than medical schools. At Mount Sinai, we realize that to achieve the best possible health outcomes for the diverse communities and patients we serve, we have to think about them at the population and community levels where patients live their daily lives, and not solely think at the physician-patient level when they enter the clinic. That can happen much more readily when everyone sits side by side and takes on these challenges together as a team.” The Department of Public Health will take a transdisciplinary team approach to identifying disease patterns and resiliency factors locally, regionally, and globally to develop and implement the most effective interventions and treatments for all. “When you think about the factors in our lives that affect health—the foods we eat, the products we use, the air we breathe, the psychological stress we experience—these things are getting into our bodies, shaping our biology, and translating into health outcomes,” Wright said. “They are not just public health issues. These factors affect patients too and have significant impacts on their treatments and disease progression. We have not yet factored them into our treatment programs, but doing so will have profound benefits. “We used to try to understand the effects by looking at one factor at a time, like ‘What's the effect of lead on the brain?’ But the world doesn't work that way. We are exposed to multiple risk factors at once. We take in many different things at once, and we have to understand their joint effects by looking at health threats as comprehensively as possible, not just one by one,” noted Wright. The new department will meet the current and emerging challenges of aging public health infrastructures, pandemics, systemic health disparities, access to health care, climate change, and rapidly changing disease patterns, while advancing research and implementation opportunities in genomics, exposomics, and vaccines leveraging data science and artificial intelligence tools. “I'm a critical care physician by training, and I like working with teams to address complex problems,” Wright said. “I approach public health in this context to achieve the ultimate goal of better outcomes for our patients and communities.” Damian Green, MD, Leads Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Services at Sylvester Damian Green, MD, will join Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University Miami Miller School of Medicine to lead its transplantation and cellular therapy services. He will serve as Chief of Sylvester's Division of Transplantation & Cellular Therapy, as well as Assistant Director of Translational Research.Damian Green, MD: Damian Green, MDHe joins Sylvester from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, where he built a distinguished track record in research and clinical practice treating blood cancers. Green specializes in multiple myeloma and other B-cell malignancies, and his research has led to the discovery and testing of several pioneering immunotherapy approaches to treat myeloma and other blood cancers. “Damian has a long track record of innovative and groundbreaking approaches to immunotherapy by improving cellular and antibody-based approaches for patients with multiple myeloma or lymphoma. He is superbly qualified to assume leadership of our outstanding transplantation and cellular therapy efforts, and his research mentorship will elevate our training of the next generation of physician scientists,” said Stephen Nimer, MD, Director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, and Executive Dean for research at the Miller School. Green plans to use his expertise and experience treating and researching multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and related cancers to help expand Sylvester's impactful work in immunotherapy for blood cancers. Besides multiple myeloma, Green's clinical expertise includes lymphomas, amyloidosis, immunotherapy, and stem cell transplants for blood cancers. His research focuses on developing immunotherapeutic approaches to treat and ultimately eradicate multiple myeloma and lymphoma. “Sylvester is an amazing cancer center with remarkable people and very strong programs,” he said. “I'm thrilled to be part of the center's growth and to help contribute more broadly to the field of cancer discovery.” Etta Pisano Will Lead ARPA-H Advancing Clinical Trials Readiness Initiative The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) appointed Etta D. Pisano, MD, FACR, to build the agency's clinical trial portfolio and lead the ARPA-H Advancing Clinical Trials Readiness Initiative. The first radiologist to be appointed to such a role, she is an internationally recognized expert in women's health, breast cancer research, and the use of artificial intelligence in medical imaging applications. With ARPA-H, Pisano will work to build underserved and minority participation in clinical trials, including identifying and onboarding rural facilities and those outside of large academic medical centers.Etta D. Pisano, MD, FACR: Etta D. Pisano, MD, FACR“I am honored to be working for ARPA-H to identify and promote research that can improve health care quality, efficacy, and delivery, and to improve patient care and access to clinical trials for all Americans, including women, rural residents, and the underserved,” Pisano said. She will continue to serve as study Chair of the large-scale Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (TMIST) for the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group. She will also serve as the American College of Radiology Chief Research Officer. The TMIST breast cancer screening study is among the fastest-growing National Cancer Institute (NCI) trials of the COVID-19 era. Under Pisano's leadership, TMIST is assembling one of the most diverse cancer screening trial populations ever. Approximately 21 percent of TMIST U.S. participants are Black—more than double the average rate for Black participation in NCI-funded clinical trials (9%). Katie Pollard, PhD, Receives Grant for Cancer Research & AI Katie Pollard, PhD, leads a multidisciplinary research team at Gladstone Institutes that has received funding through the Biswas Family Foundation's Transformative Computational Biology Grant Program. The goal is to ignite a fresh wave of cancer discoveries using computational biology and artificial intelligence.Katie Pollard, PhD: Katie Pollard, PhDThe grant establishes the Biswas Center for Transformative Computational Cancer Biology, where scientists will fuse powerful machine learning with cutting-edge experimental technologies to help identify and prioritize which research avenues are most likely to lead to success in cancer diagnosis and treatment. “Our tools and discoveries will be freely shared, fueling a global acceleration of cancer biology research and the development of therapies specialized to each type of cancer mechanism,” said Pollard, who also serves as Director of the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology. “This should help patients and their doctors make well-informed decisions about cancer care.” The new center's suite of deep learning models is capable of performing trillions of editing experiments to generate and rank testable hypotheses about how changing a cell's DNA will alter its function and interactions with other cells. Focused initially on colorectal and skin cancers, the group hopes to identify molecular mechanisms overlooked by other researchers and develop a predictive understanding of how cancer immunotherapies work. “The research and health ecosystem has entered an era where vast amounts of data are continuously being generated. The convergence of powerful computers, big data, and AI is already transforming human health in remarkable ways. And when you amass a lot of smart people in a place like Gladstone, really interesting things are bound to happen,” said Sanjit Biswas, Co-Founder of the Biswas Family Foundation. Melissa B. Davis, PhD, Receives Funding From Cancer Grand Challenges Melissa B. Davis, PhD, Director of the Institute of Translational Genomic Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine, will lead a world-class research team. The researchers were selected as one of five international research teams to receive funding from Cancer Grand Challenges. SAMBAI (Societal, Ancestry, Molecular, and Biological Analyses of Inequalities) will be the only research team to address the issue of inequities in cancer prevention, screening, and treatment.Melissa B. Davis, PhD: Melissa B. Davis, PhD“I want to extend my appreciation to Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Grand Challenges, my Team SAMBAI colleagues around the world, and my Morehouse School of Medicine family on being selected as one of five world-class global research teams to win this award,” Davis said. “We are looking forward to engaging into what we hope will be groundbreaking research that will shift the paradigm for cancer inequity amongst people of African descent and hopefully helping to save lives in the future.” The proposal plans to build an unprecedented resource comprised of comprehensive measurements of social, environmental, genetic, and biological factors used to help define the causes of disparate outcomes in the selected populations. The team will focus on prostate, breast, and pancreatic cancers in diverse cohorts of African descent from regions within Africa, the U.K., and the U.S. “Together, we've built a foundation strong enough to embark on this ambitious journey, largely through our Polyethnic-1000 project efforts at the New York Genome Center,” Davis said. “With this monumental award, we will continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in cancer research, inspired by the collaborative philosophies of my NYGC colleagues that have brought us this far.” High School Seniors Win the Regeneron STS 2024 for Cancer Research The Society for Science has announced winners of the 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors that consistently identifies young innovators who become tomorrow's STEM leaders. Thomas Cong took second place for investigating the rapid growth of certain cancers and whether information controlling metabolism is primarily controlled by the expression of genetic information. He found factors like cancer's tissue of origin, its surrounding environment in the body, and how many cancer cells there are in a mass strongly influence metabolic signatures. This finding of pronounced differences in metabolism and gene expression suggests that a more complex landscape of metabolic variation and further into cancer Thomas received a for investigating the between a gene in cellular and a of that cell growth and He cancer cell exposed them to and the which at levels and were to lead to treatment His for further drug research both and in as the Science Talent Search, the Regeneron STS and the most promising young scientists who are developing that most enter the Regeneron research in scientific of among high school the Regeneron STS focuses on and engaging the most promising scientists among the nation's high school PhD, Receives PhD, of the Oncology Department at Cancer Center, received a He was the for his project approaches to in cancer.” He is the first researcher in and at to this prestigious PhD: are very of Dr. for being a This is a to the and of his research We look forward to the his work will said PhD, Chair of the Oncology Department at in and technologies have a new era in in cancer These therapies on the to and or on the cancer cell's our of the underlying cell within the tumor landscape research models to examine and in healthy tissue and the cancer tumor His goal is to how patterns of the for developing immunotherapeutic The Cancer Research established the to support with the to cancer prevention, or treatment are selected through a and by a scientific of cancer researchers with their of innovative work. have the development of the with gene editing tools and and computational for large that continue to information on and cancer center for this to

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