March 3, 2025
A colorized scanning electron micrograph reveals in fine detail human sperm traveling through a fallopian tube. Ciliated cells (purple with hairlike extensions) help move eggs from the ovary to the uterus and regulate flow of fluid. Secretory cells (green) produce a nutrient-rich fluid that bathes sperm and egg.
Image courtesy of Steve Gschmeissner.
February 24, 2025
A differential interference contrast image of an amoeba magnified 60 times. Amoebas are a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter their shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopods or “false feet.”
Image courtesy of Håkan Kvarnström, Stockholm, Sweden and Nikon.
February 17, 2025
Melanoma or melanocyte skin cancer cells (orange) under microscope. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer, with rising prevalence. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. Because melanomas can develop anywhere in the body, they pose particular challenges for diagnoses and treatment.
February 12, 2025
The San Diego-based philanthropic organization has awarded $43 million in cancer research to date
Curebound recently announced the awarding of 17 grants in December 2024 for a total of $8.25 million in funding to advance cancer research in 2024.
Two new grants will support cancer research conducted by scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Since 2014, 32 Curebound grants have supported projects that included scientists at the institute.
A workaround for a tricky target
The TP53 gene contains the blueprint for constructing a protein called tumor protein p53. This protein is considered a tumor suppressor because it helps cells grow in a controlled manner.
When cell growth goes awry, however, the TP53 gene is a common culprit as the most frequently mutated gene in cancers. While this ubiquity has placed a bullseye on the mutated tumor protein p53 for aspiring drug developers, it has proven tricky to target directly.
Brooke Emerling, PhD, director of the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program, and her collaborators have shown that the growth of cancer cells with a mutated TP53 gene is dependent on lipid enzymes called phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinases (PI5P4K). Emerling and her collaborators have identified compounds that break down these enzymes.
The researchers have demonstrated the ability of these compounds to target and eliminate cancer cells with a mutated TP53 gene without harming normal cells. Curebound will support the team’s ongoing efforts to work around the difficult-to-target tumor protein p53 by instead targeting PI5P4K.
Next, the group plans to optimize the compounds that break down PI5P4K to develop cancer drugs that are strong candidates for future clinical trials.
Curebound collaborators: Patrick Kearney, PhD, director of Medicinal Chemistry in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, and Eric Wang, PhD, assistant professor in the Cancer Molecular Therapeutics Program.
Boosting the immune system against lung cancer
The immune system is one of the main defenses of the human body to fend off harmful pathogens and invasive cells such as cancer. Among all white blood cells, a particular cell type, called a T cell, can directly kill cancer cells and therefore plays an essential role in building anti-tumor immune responses.
Immunotherapies that boost the anti-cancer capabilities of T cells have revolutionized the way we treat cancer, especially in blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. More recently, immunotherapies are rapidly advancing to become mainstream treatments for solid cancers as well.
Currently, however, less than a third of patients with lung cancer benefit from immunotherapies. Pandurangan Vijayanand, MD, PhD, the William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, discovered that certain T cells called cytotoxic T lymphocytes have molecular features associated with a robust immune response against lung cancer tumors. His work has identified new targets for lung cancer immunotherapy.
Curebound will support Vijayanand’s collaboration with Michael Jackson, PhD, senior vice president for Drug Discovery and Development in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, to use this research to identify agents to boost tumor immune responses.
The research team’s work has the potential to identify a new class of immunotherapy drugs for patients with lung cancer.
Curebound collaborator: Changlu Liu, PhD, director of Receptor Pharmacology in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics.
Pandurangan Vijayanand, MD, PhD, is the William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
February 10, 2025
A confocal micrograph depicts an embryonic mouse kidney showing the collecting duct (blue) and nephron progenitor (yellow) cells.
Image courtesy of Lori O’Brien, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Nikon.
February 6, 2025
Tzaridis, a postdoctoral fellow at Sanford Burnham Prebys, received the honor in recognition of his achievements in research on pediatric brain cancer
Theo Tzaridis, MD, was named the 2024 recipient of The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship at Sanford Burnham Prebys.
The scholarship fund was established at the institute to remember Eric Dudl, a postdoctoral researcher whose life was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 33. Since 2007, 17 postdoctoral scientists have received support for their research from the endowed scholarship fund.
Tzaridis is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Peter Adams, PhD, director of the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. He studies ways to enhance immunotherapy for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the deadliest brain tumor in children.
Tzaridis found that targeting a checkpoint molecule called CD155 leads to an enhanced immune response and tumor control. He presented the work at the annual American Association for Cancer Research conference. There he established a collaboration with a company that produces the only available antibody against CD155, enabling Tzaridis to continue his research by testing the antibody’s potential efficacy for treating DIPG in order to pave the way for a clinical trial to improve survival for patients.
David Brenner, MD, Kevin Yip, PhD, and Peter Adams, PhD, with Robert James and Barbara Dudl and scholarship recipient Theo Tzaridis, MD.
The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship at Sanford Burnham Prebys was established at the institute to remember Eric, a postdoctoral researcher whose life was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 33.
Tzaridis has garnered recognition and extramural funding throughout his career as a physician-scientist, including the 2023 Lenka Finci and Erna Viterbi Fishman Fund Award from Sanford Burnham Prebys and the best oral presentation from the American Association of Immunologists during the 2024 La Jolla Immunology Conference. His career goal is to advance research findings into clinical trials that benefit patients, including trials regarding the effective use of immunotherapy as a treatment for brain cancer.
“I’m truly grateful for the support of The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship,” said Tzaridis. “Eric’s inspiring legacy as an immensely dedicated postdoctoral cancer researcher lives on through the important work the scholarship helps fund.”
“Theo is an outstanding physician and a superb scientist,” said Adams. “I have no doubt that he will advance the science of brain cancer while also contributing to meaningful improvements for patients and their families.”
For more information on setting up a scholarship or to learn more about our philanthropy program, please contact giving@sbpdiscovery.org.
February 3, 2025
Using confocal microscopy, this image depicts breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli.
Image courtesy of Caleb Dawson at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia and Nikon.
January 28, 2025
Scientists show how the advanced form of fatty liver disease has monstrous effects on liver cancer risk
Liver cancer has proven to be a tough beast to tame. Experts expected rates of the cancer to decrease following the development of the hepatitis B vaccine in the 1980s, which reduced one of the major risk factors for the disease.
Research in Taiwan showed that its universal infant hepatitis B vaccination program led to young adults experiencing a 35.9% reduction in cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common liver cancer.
Despite innovation leading to the world’s first cancer-preventing vaccine, incidence of HCC has been on the rise due to a spike in fatty liver disease over recent decades. Lifestyle factors such as high-calorie diets, excessive alcohol consumption and minimal exercise — along with genetic predispositions — can lead to problematic changes in the liver, heart and kidneys.
Specifically in the liver, growing deposits of fat in the tissue can lead over time to an advanced form of fatty liver disease marked by chronic inflammation and the accumulation of thickened scar tissue, a condition known as metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). MASH significantly increases a patient’s risk of developing HCC.
Debanjan Dhar, PhD, is an associate professor in the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program.
In a paper published January 1, 2025, in Nature, scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys, the University of California San Diego, Curtin University, the University of Pennsylvania and The Liver Cancer Collaborative, demonstrated that MASH damages the DNA of liver cells. The study also linked these changes to the development of liver cancer.
Peter Adams, PhD, is the director of the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program.
“DNA damage from MASH causes liver cells to stop dividing and enter a zombie-like state called senescence,” said Debanjan Dhar, PhD, associate professor in the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys and coauthor on the study. “This study’s results demonstrate that some of these cells later exit senescence and are likely to become cancerous due to their accumulation of damage and mutations.”
“In the future, we can apply what we’ve learned to study potential opportunities to prevent or repair DNA damage from MASH to reduce patients’ risk of developing liver cancer,” said Peter Adams, PhD, director of the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys and coauthor on the study.
Michael Karin, PhD, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, is the senior and corresponding author on the study.
Li Gu, PhD, a former postdoctoral fellow in the Karin lab, shares first authorship of the study with visiting scientist Yahui Zhu.
Additional authors include:
January 27, 2025
A network of dopaminergic neurons generated from human stem cells. Dopaminergic neurons regulate many brain functions, including voluntary movement, learning and reward and working memory.
Image courtesy of Nick Gatford, University of Oxford and Nikon Small World.
January 20, 2025
Astrocytes surrounding a blood vessel in a thin slice of human brain.
Image courtesy of Anja de Lange, University of Cape Town and Nikon Small World.