cancer

A Crystal Ball for Prostate Cancer Treatment

IRP’s Dr. Adam Sowalsky Looks to Tumors’ Origins to Predict Outcomes

crystal ball

"Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been." — hockey great Wayne Gretzky

Imagine two men, both diagnosed with prostate cancer. For one, the disease will remain a quiet shadow, never seriously threatening his life. For the other, it will become an aggressive adversary, resisting treatments and altering his future. This June, as Men's Health Month brings such realities into focus, a critical question echoes in clinics and labs: how can we identify early on which cancer will turn dangerous, and how can we use that knowledge to change a patient's outcome for the better? 

IRP senior investigator Adam G. Sowalsky, Ph.D., believes the answer lies not just in how cancer adapts during treatment, but in the evolutionary traits it already possesses when it first emerges. 

A Peek at This Year’s Postbac Poster Day

Annual Event Provides Showcase for IRP Postbaccalaureate Fellows

IRP postbac fellow Angel Obiorah with her research poster

As informative as undergraduate science courses can be, there’s no better way to learn the ins and outs of biology than to scrutinize and manipulate it in the lab every day. That’s why so many science enthusiasts flock to NIH after college to participate in the IRP Postbaccalaureate IRTA Program, which allows newly minted grads to spend a year or two working full-time in a lab at NIH. And rather than demonstrating the knowledge they’ve gained on a test, IRP postbacs get to present their research at NIH’s Postbac Poster Day each year, an environment akin to the poster sessions at scientific conferences many postbacs will be attending as they continue their scientific careers.

This year, more than 900 IRP postbacs showed off their research at the event, and unlike prior years, all their presentations were done during one absolutely jam-packed day rather than being spread over two days. Read on to learn about how five of them have taken advantage of the opportunity to work in IRP labs over the past year.

Robot-Assisted Experiments Point to Treatments for Rare Cancer

Study Identifies Drugs That Exploit the Disease’s Weak Spots

drug-screening robots performing automated experiments

The best way to destroy a cancer cell is to target its weak points, but that’s obviously easier said than done, especially when you want to kill those diseased cells while sparing healthy ones. That’s where robots come in, allowing scientists to quickly evaluate the effects of thousands of drugs on cancer to see what works and what doesn’t. IRP researchers recently used that approach to identify potential treatments for a rare skin cancer, including a strategy that appears to be particularly good at hitting the disease where it’s most vulnerable.

Decoding Cancer’s Genetic Blueprint

IRP’s Stephen Chanock Elected to National Academy of Medicine

Dr. Stephen Chanock

IRP senior investigator Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., grew up on the NIH campus, spending many weekends hanging around his father’s lab. Robert M. Chanock, M.D., worked at NIH for 50 years, during which he identified the human respiratory syncytial virus and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) for his discoveries. Now, following in his dad’s footsteps, the younger Dr. Chanock has been elected to the NAM for his contributions to our understanding of how inherited genetic variation and environmental factors contribute to the risk of developing cancer.

Leveraging AI To Combat Cervical Cancer

IRP Researcher Identifies Precise Disease Biomarkers

doctor holding an electronic tablet

Over the last few decades, advances in cervical cancer screening and prevention have fundamentally changed the approach to dealing with one of the most common forms of cancer in younger women. While doctors have been able to detect cancerous and pre-cancerous cells with a Pap smear since the 1940s, the more recent discovery that the human papillomavirus (HPV) causes more than 90 percent of cervical cancers now affords greater accuracy to regular screening tests. What’s more, IRP researchers truly changed the game by developing a vaccine against HPV, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006. 

Still, despite these extremely positive developments, much work remains to be done, as cervical cancer continues to kill about 4,000 American women each year. In honor of World Cervical Cancer Awareness Month this January, we spoke with IRP Senior Investigator Nicolas Wentzensen, M.D., Ph.D., about his efforts to bring that number as close to zero as possible.

Welcoming NIH’s Four Newest Lasker Scholars

IRP Program Boosts Careers of Promising Physician-Scientists

clockwise from top-left: Dr. Lisa McReynolds, Dr. Chris Grunseich, Dr. Samira Sadowski, and Dr. Andrea Lisco

Many scientists have a seemingly single-minded focus on their research, but there are considerable benefits to having one foot in the lab and the other in the clinic. Working with patients gives researchers a daily reminder of the people they are working so hard to help and allows them to investigate the effects of promising but still experimental treatments in willing volunteers. That’s one of the main reasons why the IRP’s Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program is designed to accelerate the careers of promising early-career physician-scientists. 

This year, four NIH researchers began receiving support from the Lasker program, allowing them to dramatically expand their cutting-edge research. From investigating the roots of muscle-weakening genetic conditions to probing the mysteries of rare, hormone-producing tumors, these individuals will use the leg up provided by the Lasker Program to make new discoveries that could one day improve their patients’ lives. Read on to learn more about the exciting research the latest crop of Lasker Scholars is pursuing.

Sharing Science at the NIH Research Festival

Poster Sessions Showcase IRP Discoveries

IRP postdoctoral fellow Siobhan Lawler

No single event captures the incredible breadth of research going on in the IRP as effectively as the annual NIH Research Festival. In fact, the event is so jam-packed that it typically stretches over multiple days, running this year from September 23-25. The first day of the 2024 Research Festival kicked off with a poster session where scientists from all across NIH showcased the cutting-edge science they have been working on, demonstrating research on subjects like how cooking affects the brain, vaping’s impact on lung health, 3D models for studying pregnancy complications, and much more. Read on to dive deeper into a few of the more than 400 research projects presented at this celebration of IRP science.

Comparing Two Ways to Blast Tumors

IRP Study Is Examining the Long-Term Effects of Treatments for Children With Cancer

cancer cell being destroyed by a high-energy beam

Not long after German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen identified X-rays in 1895, doctors began using them to treat cancer. They soon realized, however, that this new ‘radium’ therapy — the forebearer of modern-day radiation therapy — could also cause cancer. Today, we know that radiation therapy poses much greater risks to children than adults because their cells are dividing more rapidly than those of adults, making the cells more sensitive to radiation. Children also have more years of life ahead of them during which a cancer instigated by their treatment might develop.

IRP’s Giorgio Trinchieri Elected to National Academy of Sciences

IRP Scientist Has Found New Ways to Wield the Immune System Against Cancer

Dr. Giorgio Trinchieri

Over the past twenty or so years, we’ve seen a sea change in many cancer therapies resulting from advances in immunotherapy. Rather than trying to poison cancer cells with chemotherapy or rip apart their DNA with radiation, these treatments help our own bodies attack the disease. As a result, we’ve seen a remarkable reduction in cancer deaths from many types of tumors. 

NIH Distinguished Investigator Giorgio Trinchieri, M.D., has long stood at the forefront of these discoveries. This year, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his achievements in identifying the mechanisms regulating the activity of certain classes of immune cells and how the environment around a tumor interacts with the immune system to suppress an immune response to the disease. This includes searching for ways to expand the benefits of immunotherapy to more patients.

IRP’s Marston Linehan Receives HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service

Honor Recognizes Groundbreaking Advances in Cancer Genetics

Dr. Marston Linehan

As an undergraduate majoring in English, IRP senior investigator W. Marston Linehan, M.D., was fascinated by the complex poetry of 18th-century writer William Blake. But as much as he loved puzzling out the deeper meanings behind literary metaphors and imagery, Dr. Linehan eventually realized he wanted to do work that had more tangible benefits for people. Biology, with its own deep and complex mysteries, fit the bill.

Nearly 40 years later, Dr. Linehan’s pioneering work in the study of genetic forms of kidney cancer has transformed how doctors treat the disease. Over that period, he and his colleagues discovered or co-discovered nine distinct forms of kidney cancer and identified 10 different genes that cause them. These discoveries have provided the basis for targeted therapies and new approaches to treatment and, this year, earned Dr. Linehan the HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, the highest honor given by the US government’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).