Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, focuses on the role of the microbiome – the collection of microorganisms that live within us – in ovarian cancer and in the disease’s stubborn ability to resist immune therapy.

City of Hope®, a leading cancer research and treatment organization, and Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO), announce a collaboration focused on the City of Hope-developed IL13RA2-EGFR CAR T cell program addressing glioblastoma multiforme. City of Hope licensed this technology to Mustang Bio Inc. Under the collaboration, City of Hope will evaluate Cellares’ Cell Shuttle™ automated manufacturing platform and Cell Q™ automated quality control system to enable reliable, high-throughput manufacturing and quality control of its CARpool program. By engaging at the preclinical stage, the collaboration will establish platform processes and analytics purpose-built for solid tumor CAR T programs, accelerating advancement into clinical trials while enabling scalable manufacturing to meet global patient demand.

The partnership enables Fox Chase to become the first NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center to implement clinical testing utilizing Arima's 3D-genomics technology in multiple tumor types as part of a standard protocol.

The Krainer lab discovered a three-oncogene circuit that helps drive the aggressive progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Using antisense oligonucleotide technology, the team developed a potential RNA therapy. In lab tests, the new treatment broke the cancerous circuit, reduced tumor viability, and triggered a type of programmed cell death.

Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a promising new way to bolster the body’s immune system response to cancer.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers used specially engineered multi-pronged antibodies to better activate cancer-killing T cells.

The antibodies work by ‘grabbing’ and ‘clustering’ multiple immune cell receptors – boosting the signal which tells the T cell to attack the cancer.

Scientists at the University of Connecticut have developed a handheld ‘pocket microscope’ that directly visualizes DNA and proteins in living cells without stains or labels. The system uses deep-ultraviolet light to map molecules with femtogram sensitivity, achieving 308-nanometer resolution across centimeter-wide areas. The device enables instant pathology diagnosis, identifies cancer cells, and maps brain neurons -- all while preserving samples’ natural state. This technology could transform medical diagnostics, from operating rooms to space missions.

This study demonstrates that preoperative VEGFR-TKI plus ICI therapy, combined with 3D reconstruction-guided robotic cytoreductive nephron-sparing surgery, is safe and feasible in locally advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma. This integrated approach increased the feasibility of nephron-sparing surgery, reduced perioperative morbidity, and improved renal functional preservation. It also provided significant progression-free and overall survival advantages, accompanied by marked tumor immune microenvironment remodeling with enhanced TLS formation and immune-cell infiltration.

A new study in Nature Communications doubles the number of publicly available metagenomic breast milk samples and shows how different combinations of bacteria in human milk contribute to the assembly of infants’ gut microbiomes.