Yale Cancer Center

1. Yale Cancer Center leadership has selected Seth Herzon, PhD, Milton Harris ’29 Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry, Yale School of Medicine and Smita Krishnaswamy, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics and of Computer Science, Yale School of Public Health as recipients of the 2024 Class of ‘61 Cancer Research Awards. The annual awards recognize significant accomplishments in cancer research at YCC by young faculty members, coupled with expectation for future outstanding contributions to understanding the causes and cures for cancer.

In their nomination letters, Dr. Herzon was cited as an engaging and enthusiastic research partner, and a key contributor to the YCC mission, and Dr. Krishnaswamy as having demonstrated significant accomplishments in the field of data science and being poised for future outstanding contributions to the understanding of cancer biology.

The Class of ’61 Cancer Research Awards are supported through the Yale Class of 1961 Cancer Center Endowment, which was established in 2016 by the Yale College class. Read more about the awards.

2. Sajid Khan, MD, Chief of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary & Mixed Tumors, and co-Principal Investigator Caroline Johnson, PhD Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) at Yale School of Public Health, have been awarded a highly competitive R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the study titled “Role and Regulation of Asparagine in Colorectal Cancer.” This groundbreaking research aims to uncover the mechanisms by which asparagine influences sex-specific differences in the progression of advanced colorectal cancer. This is the duo’s third NIH-funded grant as Co-Principal Investigators, all of which have emphasized the importance of collaborative, interdisciplinary research. Read more about this grant here.

3. Congratulations to the awardees for the 2024 Retrospective Oncology Research Award (RORA) supported by Foundation Medicine. Researchers from across the Yale Cancer Center were invited to propose projects where real-world data could potentially provide tangible, valuable insights resulting in immediate impact to clinical care. Awarded projects will follow a collaborative research model with Foundation Medicine scientists, including indirect access to the Foundation Medicine—Flatiron Health Clinico-Genomic Database (CGDB).

The awardees and their projects:

• Michael Cecchini (top left), MD for "The Role of Splicing Factors SF3B1 and RBM10 in TP53 Wildtype PDAC"

• Wayne Wong (top right), MD, Xiao Wang (bottom right), MD and So Yeon Kim (bottom left), MD for "STK11/KEAP-mutant aNSCLC on dual ICI and chemotherapy regimens vs. dual ICI alone or single ICI and chemo."

Thanks to our Yale experts (Anne Chiang, MD, PhD, Dan Petrylak, MD, Sarah Schellhorn, MD and Amer Zeidan, MBBS) who partnered with Foundation Medicine on the review process. Thanks to all who were interested and submitted proposals. Watch for new opportunities in the future.

The non-profit Lion Heart Foundation, wrapping up 18 years of support for Yale breast cancer research, recently announced its final three research awards to Yale investigators for 2025. In its nearly two decades, the foundation has raised more than $1.6 million and 100% of it was donated to YCC and Smilow Cancer Hospital for research. In addition to the walk, donations have been raised by dozens of high school and university swim teams in New York and Connecticut. Those chosen for the $52,000 grants were:

• Thazin Aung (top left), PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Pathology for " Mapping the Spatial Landscape of Immune Response and Tumor Heterogeneity to PredictImmunotherapy Efficacy in Triple Negative Breast Cancer."

• Tianxiang Zhang (top right), PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Immunobiology for "Mechanism of PLA2G10 in Inducing the Immune Evasion and Resistance to Immunotherapies of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer."

• Wei Hu (bottom left), PhD, Assistant Professor of Immunobiology, YSM for "Novel Treg inactivating approach for breast cancer immunotherapy via targeted protein degradation."

The holiday season meant celebrations of every kind from staff that took time to toast the holidays and each other, including the Smilow Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program (1); the Heme Malignancies team (2) on NP7 sharing their joy and camaraderie; Avery’s Little Army (3) delivering a truckload of toys for the pediatric oncology toy bank at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital; and Santa was on hand to help handout toys for pediatric cancer survivors through generous donations to the Yale HEROS pediatric cancer survivors program (4); and for another year, the Thoracic Medical Oncology team donated holiday bags of food, gift cards, and treats to several of our patients, organized by practice nurses Kelly Derosier and Maria Rivera (5).

6. Toby Bressler, PhD, RN, OCN, FAAN, joined Smilow Cancer Hospital as Vice President for Patient Services on Jan. 6. “Toby’s leadership and expertise in oncology program development and establishing standardized clinical guidelines will be a valuable asset to Smilow Cancer Hospital,” said Eric Winer, MD, Director of Yale Cancer Center and President and Physician-in-Chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital. Prior to arriving at Smilow, Bressler held leadership positions at Mount Sinai, Maimonides Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian. Read more here.

7. Welcome to Thazin Nwe Aung, PhD, an Associate Research Scientist in Pathology and a new member of the Cancer Immunology Program. Her current research focuses on identifying prognostic/predictive biomarkers associated with response/resistance to treatments in cancer using spatial multi-omics.

8. Welcome to Shilpa Murthy, MD, MPH, an Assistant Professor of Surgery (Colon and Rectal). Her research interests lie at the intersection of surgery and public health and how these two fields can improve cancer care delivery for underserved and disenfranchised patients. Dr. Murthy is a new member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program.

9. Welcoming Timur Yarovinsky, MD, PhD to the YCC Cancer Immunology program. Dr. Yarovinsky is a research scientist specializing in cardiovascular medicine. His research investigates host responses to staphylococcal infections and post-transcriptional mechanisms regulating gene expression in immune cells.

The new year arrived with an announcement of a $1 million gift establishing the Raj and Indra Nooyi Cancer Research Fund. Under the direction of Mehra Golshan, MD, MBA, professor of surgery (oncology), and in collaboration with Parisa Lotfi, MD, assistant professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, the fund will support groundbreaking and life-giving research aimed at reducing the toxicity and burden of breast cancer treatment.

“They are providing groundbreaking research funding that will allow for the most optimal, patient-centered care and decrease the burden of breast cancer treatment,” Dr. Golshan said.

The research fund stems from the Nooyis' awareness of the critical need for innovative research in oncology, in this case to foster groundbreaking research at the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery in the realm of oncology.

Indra Nooyi, ’80 MPPM, the former chair and CEO of PepsiCo, and her husband, Raj Nooyi, a former supply chain management executive, have continued to expand their philanthropic endeavors with Yale. In addition to YSM, they support Yale’s Schools of Management and Public Health.

Dr. Golshan’s team-focused collaborative research will continue to focus on reducing the toxicity of breast cancer treatments by employing novel image-guided and molecular-based imaging techniques. These methods aim to minimize the need for re-operations in breast cancer. In addition, the team’s work focuses on de-escalating the amount of treatment for low-risk conditions such as Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) and reducing the incidence while improving outcomes for women who develop lymphedema (arm swelling) associated with breast cancer surgery.

“We have spent time together on numerous occasions discussing the challenges of conducting cutting-edge research when funding is limited through traditional grant mechanisms,” said Golshan. “Their desire to support both cancer research and surgery at YSM sparked this initiative,” Dr. Golshan said. Read more here.

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