Cancer Center Archives - Sanford Burnham Prebys

Tag: Cancer Center

Institute News

Women in Science Lecture series features cancer research fundraising leader and entrepreneur

AuthorCommunications
Date

October 20, 2026

Sherine Sun, Robin Toft, Susanne Heynen-Genel and Jessica Proulx. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
From left to right: Sherine Sun, Robin Toft, Susanne Heynen-Genel and Jessica Proulx. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

The series highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute hosted another inspirational installment of the Women in Science Lecture Series on October 14, 2026. The featured guest speaker was Robin Toft, CEO of Curebound, a community-powered cancer research accelerator in San Diego that has invested more than $50 million in 170 scientific projects.

Toft shared the trajectory of her career in health care and research. Early in her professional journey as a clinical laboratory scientist, she found that she excelled at educating physicians about new technologies. That led her into molecular diagnostic sales and later into the San Francisco biotech industry. After being diagnosed with colon cancer on a business trip, she was determined to move her life and career in a different direction.

Toft built an executive search firm in San Diego focused on serving oncology companies. Her goal was to put the right people in the right places to succeed. After she grew her search firm and it was acquired, Toft focused even more intently on providing service to institutional boards.

“Having served on more than 15 boards in and around this area, I was pulled toward nonprofit service,” said Toft. “Curebound was by far my favorite, so when Anne Marbarger stepped down as CEO, I raised my hand and said, ‘choose me, I really, really need to do this job.’”

Toft then discussed enhancements to Curebound’s leadership team and fundraising strategies aimed at increasing the organization’s ability to invest in the region.

“We love to invest over $10 million annually, and I want that to go up to 15, 20 and 25 in the coming years,” she said.

Toft concluded by providing advice on career advancement for women in academic and industry science based on her experience placing high-level executives.

“It always comes down to three elements: confidence, competence and connections,” said Toft.

Demonstrating confidence starts with candidates applying to jobs even when they don’t meet every single qualification. Competence includes creating and demonstrating value, then leveraging it to ask for additional opportunities. On the topic of connections, Toft discussed mentors who provide direct guidance and sponsors who go to bat for you when you’re not in the room.

“I challenge each of you to create a board of directors for yourself that includes both mentors and sponsors, and you’ll have a network to push you forward.”

Robin Toft, CEO of Cureboung, speaking at the podium

Curebound CEO Robin Toft shared the trajectory of her career in health care and research. She also provided advice on career advancement for women in academic science and industry based on her experience running an oncology-focused executive search firm. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Following Toft’s remarks, Jessica Proulx, PhD, postdoctoral associate in the lab of Peter Adams, PhD, moderated a fireside chat and audience question-and-answer session with Toft, Susanne Heynen-Genel, PhD, director of high content imaging platforms in the Center for Therapeutics Discovery, and Xueqin (Sherine) Sun, PhD, assistant professor in the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at the Sanford Burnham Prebys NCI-designated Cancer Center. Heynen-Genel and Sun have active research projects supported by grants from Curebound.

Topics during the fireside chat included: the importance of funding for high-risk, high-reward research and pilot studies to generate preliminary data; how grantmakers and principal investigators manage risk and balance their professional portfolios; plans for investing in personalized therapy research; and how principal investigators can better serve as mentors and sponsors for female scientists.

The Women in Science Lecture Series features events that are free and open to the public. The series is part of broader efforts at Sanford Burnham Prebys to foster an environment that nurtures the success of individuals from all backgrounds. The events are hosted by the Office of Workforce Engagement & Belonging and highlight the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences, while fostering mentorship and collaboration across the Torrey Pines Mesa.

Stay tuned for more information about the next event in the series scheduled for spring 2027.

Institute News

Sanford Burnham Prebys scientists support national aging research network

AuthorCommunications
Date

October 7, 2026

abstract illustration of DNA and clocks

Recent Nature showcase features many discoveries made by Cellular Senescence Network program participants

Zombie-like entities lurk within each of us. They are known as senescent cells that no longer grow and divide. They tend to accumulate with age as our immune systems have more difficulty detecting and removing them.

These cells produce a complex mix of inflammatory molecules that can damage tissues. Senescence is involved in a range of human diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute are contributing to a nationwide effort known as the Cellular Senescence Network (SenNet) program, which aims to create a comprehensive atlas of how and where aging cells accumulate in our tissues and open new avenues for treating age-related diseases.

SenNet brings together a large network of U.S. labs and research institutions supported by the National Institutes of Health’s Common Fund. The NIH awarded $125 million in SenNet grants in 2021 with plans to provide more than $190 million in total funding.

Peter Adams, PhD

Peter Adams, PhD, is the Jeanne and Gary Herberger Leadership Chair in Cancer Research at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Peter Adams, PhD, the Jeanne and Gary Herberger Leadership Chair in Cancer Research at Sanford Burnham Prebys, is the contact principal investigator for SenNet’s San Diego Tissue Mapping Center and is co-chair of the SenNet Steering Committee.

Adams and his colleagues at the San Diego Tissue Mapping Center map senescent cells in five different tissues in mice: the liver, the brain, mammary glands, the intestines and bone marrow. The research team uses state-of-the-art, single-cell technologies applied to intact tissues to analyze specific changes in gene expression and chromatin structures within aging cells across tissues, life stages and organ systems. The center’s data analysis core is co-directed by Yuk-Lap (Kevin) Yip, PhD, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Distinguished Chair and director of the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Sanford Burnham Prebys.

The Nature family of journals recently launched an immersive webpage called “The SenNet Collection” that highlights studies from SenNet participants, including many led by or featuring Sanford Burnham Prebys authors.

Kevin Yip, PhD

Yuk-Lap (Kevin) Yip, PhD, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Distinguished Chair and director of the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

The secret identity of a cell cycle regulator in cells that don’t cycle

Cell proliferation protein cyclin D1 paradoxically promotes inflammation in non-proliferating senescent cells

In a tale of identities as divergent as “The Prince and the Pauper,” a well-known cancer-causing gene also influences cells in a senescent state meant to prevent cancer.

The Adams lab and an international team of collaborators published findings August 20, 2026, in Nature Aging unpacking this biological paradox, finding that this cell proliferation gene played a distinct role in cells that no longer proliferate. It served as a driver of chronic inflammation linked to age-related disease, marking it as a promising target for future therapies to reduce sustained inflammation and promote healthier aging.

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Altered metabolism in senescent cells helps promote destructive inflammation as we age

Study finds new mitochondrial pathway in senescent cells that changes how DNA is stored to expose inflammatory genes

The immune system’s rapid response to danger—called inflammation—is critical for our health, but it should only last as long as needed to stop infections and heal our wounds. As we grow older, however, we accumulate senescent cells that promote chronic inflammation—and which have been linked to many age-related diseases.

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Mayo Clinic and their international collaborators published findings July 29, 2026, in Nature revealing a new connection between energy-producing mitochondria and this sustained inflammation. They also found that blocking a related gene reduced inflammation and promoted healthier aging in mice.

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Single-cell sequencing analysis allows seeing the forest and trees

Study demonstrates a new method that makes massive, multidimensional datasets more manageable while preserving rare signals lost by other techniques

Sequencing technologies now routinely capture the RNA transcripts linked to thousands of genes in each cell of a sample. The immensity of these observations presents data scientists with the challenge of structuring and analyzing an output that is like a Rubik’s Cube but with thousands of faces, rows and columns.

To cut this problem down to size, researchers have developed methods to reduce the number of dimensions while preserving as much of the original data as possible. This can, however, lead to the loss of rare but biologically interesting signals, a bit like conservationists protecting a forest while inadvertently losing some unusual trees that may be important to the ecosystem. 

In a study led by the Yip lab published in Genome Biology on February 4, 2026, SenNet researchers detailed a new dimensionality reduction method called Single-cell data Analysis with Knowledge inputs from User using Regularized Autoencoders (SAKURA). The research team showed that it helped cluster rare cells and demonstrated its effectiveness in identifying endocrine cell subtypes in the pancreatic islet, highly similar hematopoietic subpopulations and rare senescent cells.

Cellular circuit controls how DNA damage is repaired, affecting risk of disease as we age

Study reveals new information about how to prevent chronic inflammation from zombie-like cells that accumulate with age

In addition to no longer growing and proliferating, the other hallmark of senescent cells is that they have an inflammatory program causing them to secrete inflammatory molecules. Cells “running” this inflammatory program are considered to exhibit the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Too many cells with SASP secreting inflammatory molecules can contribute to chronic inflammation in the body. This pervasive inflammation — called “inflammaging” — has been linked to many age-related diseases. 

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys and collaborators across the country published findings March 5, 2025, in Nature Communications showing that the mitochondria powering our cells also control the ability of a DNA repair protein to suppress SASP, which may reduce or delay inflammaging.

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Additional SenNet Collection studies with Sanford Burnham Prebys coauthors

  • “Senotypes define the diverse landscape of senescent cells” in Nature Aging on July 29, 2026
    • Karl N. Miller and Peter D. Adams
  • “Advancing biological understanding of cellular senescence with computational multiomics” in Nature Genetics on September 15, 2025
    • Peter D. Adams, Marcos G. Teneche and Shanshan Yin
  • “SenNet recommendations for detecting senescent cells in different tissues” in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology on June 3, 2024
    • Adarsh Rajesh, Karina Barbosa, Marcos G. Teneche, Peter D. Adams and Shanshan Yin
  • “Spatial mapping of cellular senescence: emerging challenges and opportunities” in Nature Aging on July 3, 2023
    • Peter D. Adams and Rebecca A. Porritt
Institute News

Sanford Burnham Prebys launches new graduate student scholarship as ARCS Foundation San Diego’s newest university partner

AuthorCommunications
Date

September 21, 2026

ARCS Foundation San Diego logo on vector background

This summer, ARCS Foundation San Diego voted to add Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute to its family of educational partners. The ARCS Foundation will fund two ARCS Scholars at the Institute for the 2026-27 academic year, each receiving a $12,500 award to support their research.

“We are extremely grateful and excited to join the ARCS family to help advance graduate education in San Diego,” said Alessandra Sacco, PhD, dean of the institute’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. “This partnership will allow us to launch a new scholarship program providing direct support to exceptional PhD students at Sanford Burnham Prebys. The foundation’s legacy of impact on graduate education in our region is unmatched, and we are honored to be joining such a distinguished group of partner institutions.”

Sanford Burnham Prebys joins ARCS Foundation San Diego’s four existing university partners: San Diego State University, Scripps Research, UC San Diego, and the University of San Diego. In 2026–27, the chapter will provide $650,000 in Scholar awards to 52 graduate students at these five San Diego–area research institutions.

Following the completion of a competitive application process, Sanford Burnham Prebys has named graduate students Laurence Haddadin and Erik Hultenius as its inaugural ARCS Scholars. Each will receive an unrestricted $12,500 scholarship, renewable for up to three years.

“I am over the moon to be one of the first recipients of the ARCS Scholar award at Sanford Burnham Prebys,” said Laurence Haddadin, a graduate student in the lab of Xueqin Sun, PhD, assistant professor in the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program. “The support that comes with it will fuel my journey into the complexities of cancer epigenetics. I’m thrilled to be part of the ARCS community and look forward to engaging with fellow scholars as we work together to advance the future of science.”

“It is a tremendous honor,” agreed Erik Hultenius, a PhD student working in the lab of Xiao Tian, PhD, assistant professor in the Center for Neurologic Diseases. “This support means a great deal as I continue to pursue my research on brain aging and neurodegeneration. I’m very eager to share my discoveries with the foundation and my fellow scholars in the years ahead.”

Laurence Haddadin

Laurence Haddadin, graduate student in the lab of Xueqin Sun, PhD.

As federal funding for scientific research faces unprecedented cuts, the ARCS Foundation San Diego recently increased its annual ARCS Scholar awards from $10,000 to $12,500. The 25% increase is designed to help exceptional graduate students continue their research at a time when financial support for science is increasingly difficult to secure.

Erik Hultenius

Erik Hultenius, a PhD student working in the lab of Xiao Tian, PhD.

“Given the cuts to federal funding for scientific research, we felt it was especially important to increase our support for young scientists at this critical stage of their careers,” said ARCS San Diego President Ingrid Benirschke-Perkins. “These talented researchers are working on discoveries that will shape our future. We want to do everything we can to help them pursue that work.”

ARCS San Diego has supported scientific research in the region for more than four decades. Since its founding in 1985, the chapter has awarded almost $14 million to 1,784 PhD students in San Diego.

About Sanford Burnham Prebys

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute is an independent nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding human biology and disease and advancing discoveries that profoundly impact human health. Our research spans six centers: the NCI-designated Cancer Center, the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases, the Center for Neurologic Diseases, the Center for Metabolic and Liver Diseases, and two enabling technology centers, the Center for Therapeutics Discovery and the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. For more information, visit sbpdiscovery.org.

About ARCS

Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) is a national nonprofit organization founded and run by women to strengthen America’s global competitiveness in science and technology. Through its 15 chapters nationwide, ARCS provides financial support to exceptional graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical research. For more information, visit san-diego.arcsfoundation.org.

Institute News

Cosimo Commisso awarded $110,000 Lustgarten Foundation grant for pancreatic cancer research

AuthorCommunications
Date

August 27, 2026

Cosimo Commisso, PhD, profile photo

The new award will fund investigation into a method for turning a tumor survival mechanism into a Trojan Horse

Cosimo Commisso, PhD, was awarded a one-year, $110,000 Lustgarten Foundation grant to support his lab’s pancreatic cancer research. The award is part of the foundation’s August 2026 announcement of $22.8 million in new research funding in fiscal year 2026.

The Lustgarten Foundation’s support will aid the Commisso lab’s study of how pancreatic cancer adapts as nearby nutrients vanish. Because they expand quickly, pancreatic tumors demand more energy and other resources than they can acquire from nearby blood vessels.

Rather than limiting their growth to more sustainable rates, these cancer cells adapt by finding alternative ways to scavenge what they need. One scrounging strategy prevalent in pancreatic cancer involves cancer cells reshaping their cell surfaces to snatch extra nutrients from the jelly-like substance between cells or extracellular matrix.

This cellular contortion is a process called macropinocytosis. In previous research, Commisso has shown that blocking it cuts tumors off from needed energy and protein building blocks. This, in turn, suppresses tumor growth by essentially starving the tumor.

The new funding will support the lab’s effort to flip the script on this strategy. Instead of blocking macropinocytosis, the scientists will test turning up the knob on a tumor’s voracious appetite for scavenging to cause it to self-destruct from overconsumption. This approach also may be able to force cancer cells to take in more chemotherapeutic molecules, which can struggle to penetrate the dense and fibrotic tumor microenvironment.

“This project has the potential to turn one of pancreatic cancer’s greatest survival tools into a Trojan Horse,” said Commisso.

“Support from organizations like the Lustgarten Foundation encourages us to ask fundamentally new questions in the pursuit of better therapies.”

With the fiscal year 2026 awards, the Lustgarten Foundation has invested $333 million in pancreatic cancer research across 386 projects at 86 academic institutions since 1998. As the world’s largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research, the foundation drives scientific breakthroughs that are redefining what is possible for patients and bringing the field closer than ever to the goal of transforming pancreatic cancer into a curable disease.

Institute News

From the Lab to the Clinic: Graduate Student Helps Advance Promising Pancreatic Cancer Therapy

AuthorCommunications
Date

August 26, 2026

Patrick Hagan, headshot

When Patrick Hagan joined Sanford Burnham Prebys as a graduate student, he hoped his research would one day help patients. Today, he is helping research that could translate more than a decade of scientific discovery into a potential new treatment for one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

Hagan, a PhD candidate in the laboratory of Nicholas Cosford, PhD, recently received the top award from the San Diego chapter of Nucleate, a nonprofit organization that helps scientists translate promising discoveries into real-world solutions.

Through the six-month accelerator program, Hagan developed ATG Attack, a venture focused on advancing autophagy inhibitors for pancreatic cancer. The project also received a Biocom Golden Membership at Nucleate San Diego’s Demo Day, recognizing both the scientific promise of the work and its potential to improve outcomes for patients.

“Ultimately, the goal is to improve outcomes for cancer patients,” said Hagan. “That’s why I went to graduate school.”

The project builds on more than 10 years of collaboration between Cosford and director of the Salk Cancer Center, Reuben Shaw, PhD. Together, the teams have been developing compounds that inhibit autophagy, a cellular recycling process that many cancer cells depend on for survival.

“Autophagy is one of the ways cancer cells gain resistance to standard therapies,” Hagan explained. “We’ve reached a point where we believe these compounds have the potential to make it all the way to patients.”

The team’s initial focus is pancreatic cancer, a disease with one of the lowest survival rates among major cancers. Many pancreatic tumors are driven by mutations in the KRAS gene and rely heavily on autophagy. In preclinical studies, the researchers have shown that blocking this process can shrink tumors and enhance the effectiveness of existing treatments.

The experience also reinforced the value of Sanford Burnham Prebys’ translational research environment.

Hagan credits Cosford and colleagues throughout the Institute, including members of the Center for Therapeutics Discovery and its Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, with helping shape his approach to drug discovery.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with scientists who are deeply focused on translating discoveries into therapies,” he said. “Our lab operates almost like a small pharmaceutical company. We have chemists creating compounds, biologists testing them and researchers evaluating how they perform in disease models. Everything is focused on moving promising discoveries closer to patients.”

For Hagan, however, the motivation remains personal.

He keeps a Post-it note on his laptop bearing the names of two researchers he knew who died from cancer at a young age. It serves as a daily reminder of why the work matters.

“Research can feel like a series of very small steps,” he said. “But every experiment, every paper and every collaboration has the potential to move the field forward. If something we do helps another scientist, attracts a new partner or ultimately helps a patient, then it’s worth it.”

For Hagan, those small steps are all part of a larger goal: bringing new hope to patients facing pancreatic cancer.

Institute News

Preuss School interns cap off summer in science

AuthorCommunications
Date

July 31, 2026

Fatima Rangel, Hailey Villa, Katya Marchetti, Derek Arista, Eliud Tapia and Zemeron Russom after the 2026 Preuss summer internship program capstone presentation.
Fatima Rangel, Hailey Villa, Katya Marchetti, Derek Arista, Eliud Tapia and Zemeron Russom after the 2026 Preuss summer internship program capstone presentation.

Members of the next generation of biomedical researchers and health care professionals spent three weeks training at Sanford Burnham Prebys

On Friday, July 24, 2026, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute community celebrated the contributions of five high school student interns from the Preuss School. Located on the University of California San Diego campus in La Jolla, the Preuss School educates students striving to be first-generation college graduates.

Participants in the Preuss summer internship program gained valuable hands-on research experience over three weeks. This program is generously funded by Debby and Wain Fishburn.

“For many high school students, biomedical research is something very new to them,” said Yuk-Lap (Kevin) Yip, PhD, associate director of training and education in the NCI-designated Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys, during the July 24 capstone presentation.

“Over the summer, our five outstanding interns gained hands-on experience as scientists and began to understand why we are so excited about the work we do.”

Graduate student Joshua Minyard introduced the interns and invited them to discuss why they wanted to participate in the program.

“I was looking to test the waters for a potential future career in biomedical research,” said intern Derek Arista.

“I thought this would be a great opportunity to work in a laboratory and deepen my knowledge as I’m considering going into the medical field,” said intern Hailey Villa.

The interns then presented the findings from their three weeks of conducting experiments. In addition to sharing how cancerous tumors in different tissues affected fruit flies, the interns also detailed what they learned about drug discovery research.

“We worked with our mentor Josh Minyard to target a protein called STK4 that is known for allowing leukemia cells to survive,” said intern Eliud Tapia.

The interns tested three different drugs as potential inhibitors of STK4. They found that one of the three was the most successful inhibitor and was effective at lower concentrations.

Katya Marchetti, a graduate student and scientific leader of the 2025 and 2026 Pruess internship programs, provided closing remarks following the interns’ capstone presentation.

“I chose to commit to running this program because eight years ago, almost to the day, I was in these interns’ shoes,” said Marchetti. “I was a high school student participating in the summer research program that completely changed the trajectory of my life.

“You should be incredibly proud of what you’ve accomplished, not just because of the data that you’ve collected, but because of how much you’ve grown. Whether or not you decide to stay in science or pursue something completely different, I hope you know that you are capable of doing hard things, because you just proved it.”

The Preuss summer internship program at Sanford Burnham Prebys has operated since 2009 and is jointly organized by the NCI-designated Cancer Center and Office of Learning and Development. This program’s founding was supported by donors Peggy and Peter Preuss, and Debby and Wain Fishburn.

Institute News

LEAP scholars share scientific and professional development achievements

AuthorCommunications
Date

July 6, 2026

From left to right: Yun Ma, Sarina Safavi, Isabel Sakowicz and Josue Navarrete. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
LEAP program participants recently shared their research at a capstone presentation event. From left to right: Yun Ma, Sarina Safavi, Isabel Sakowicz and Josue Navarrete. Not pictured: Mahek Shah. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Postbaccalaureate training program participants deliver capstone presentations, thank mentors and colleagues

In late June 2026, trainees in the LEAP (Laboratory Experience As Pathway) to a PhD program at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute participated in a capstone presentation event. The scholars shared their research findings following a year of work and mentorship in labs throughout the Institute.

The LEAP program was designed to bridge the gap between college graduation and a PhD program. It provides recent graduates with hands-on biomedical research experience, career development opportunities and mentorship to enhance their applications for—and ability to succeed in—highly competitive biomedical PhD programs.

With generous support from the Prebys Foundation, the LEAP program is offered through a collaborative partnership between the Sanford Burnham Prebys NCI-designated Cancer Center and Office of Learning and Development.

“Today we celebrate five of our LEAP program participants who have gained new skills, demonstrated research successes and grown as scientists throughout their journeys here,” said Kevin Yip, PhD, during his introductory remarks.

Following Yip’s welcoming address, the LEAP program mentors introduced the participants and invited them forward for their capstone presentations.

Yun Ma, a trainee in the Feng and Yip labs, discussed her study of proteins that group together in what are called protein complexes to carry out biological functions.

Ma developed a method for comparing data on RNA and proteins to identify priority genes affecting how protein complexes form. These priority genes may help shed new light on how diseases progress and may inform efforts to design new medications.

Her presentation was titled, “Inferring disease-associated changes in protein complex assembly from multimodal data.”

Kevin Yip, PhD

Kevin Yip, PhD, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Distinguished Chair and director of the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, provided opening remarks at the event.

Sarina Safavi, a trainee in the Dhar lab, described her work to understand why cardiovascular disease—especially heart failure with preserved ejection fraction—is the leading cause of death among liver disease patients. Safavi developed tools needed to make new liver disease research models to study how the disease affects the heart.

The continuation of this research may lead to the discovery of new drug targets and methods for identifying liver disease patients at greater risk of heart failure to enable earlier treatments.

Her talk was titled, “Mechanistic understanding of MASLD-associated cardiac dysfunction and its reversibility.”

Josue Navarrete, a trainee in the Deshpande and Yip labs, detailed his project focused on small proteins from areas beyond the protein-coding genes that get the most scientific attention. Increasing amounts of evidence supports these microproteins’ biological importance, including in cancer.

Navarette optimized a computational technique for discovering microproteins which enables large-scale studies of thousands of genes. He tested the approach and found microproteins involved in stem cells becoming blood cells and other cells. Studying these microproteins may lead to new diagnostic techniques and potential treatments for blood cancers.

His lecture was titled, “Optimized pipeline enables genome-wide discovery of candidate microproteins in hematopoiesis.” Navarette will be joining the Institute as a doctoral student this fall.

Mahek Shah, a trainee in the Spruck lab, shared her study of a cancer treatment strategy that compels tumor cells to act as if they are infected by a virus. Known as viral mimicry, this therapeutic approach triggers the innate immune system to respond against cancer cells. Shah described drug screening experiments that identified promising novel candidate compounds.

In further tests, these compounds were found to activate viral mimicry, cause an immune response and to be toxic to cancer cells. Continued research may lead to new treatments that can boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and targeted therapies.

Her presentation was titled, “Novel compounds targeting histone modifying enzymes induce viral mimicry in breast cancer.”

Isabel Sakowicz, a trainee in the Tharp lab, discussed her research regarding the most common and difficult-to-treat form of ovarian cancer. These tumors can wall themselves off from the immune system with structural collagen proteins that resemble scar tissue.

Yun Ma, a trainee in the Feng and Yip labs

Yun Ma, a trainee in the Feng and Yip labs, discussed her study of proteins that group together in what are called protein complexes to carry out biological functions.

Sakowicz explored how a potential treatment strategy might reduce levels of a form of collagen known to promote ovarian cancer invasiveness and metastasis. Lowering collagen VI levels may break down the barrier around ovarian cancer cells to make other treatments more effective, including immunotherapies.

Her presentation was titled, “FAK protein loss rewires amino acid metabolism in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.” Sakowicz will be joining the Institute as a doctoral student this fall.

In addition to discussing their respective projects, the trainees credited their mentors, fellow lab members and access to avenues for training and advancing as professionals.

“Beyond my scientific achievements, I have enjoyed many career development opportunities, including attending and presenting at workshops, seminars and conferences,” said Ma.

“Everyone in the lab has contributed to a truly supportive and cooperative environment,” said Safavi. “I would also like to thank the LEAP program coordinators for their efforts and making sure we were set up for success.”

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Kevin Tharp awarded $450,000 Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance grant to break down tumor defenses

AuthorCommunications
Date

June 16, 2026

Kevin Tharp, PhD
Kevin Tharp, PhD, is an assistant professor in the NCI-designated Cancer Center’s Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

The new award will fund research regarding how to bust through the barrier between tumors and immune cells

Kevin Tharp, PhD, was awarded a three-year, $450,000 Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance grant to study high grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common and deadly form of the disease. 

In collaboration with researchers at the University of California San Diego, Tharp recently published findings in Cell Reports demonstrating a treatment approach in mice that allowed more tumor-fighting immune cells to approach tumors, shifted the behavior of other immune cells to work against tumors, and made immunotherapy more effective.

Tharp will use the new funding to follow up on these findings regarding how high grade serous ovarian cancer circumvents the immune system’s anti-tumor defenses. His team will focus on the physical barrier that tumors build to keep immune cells at bay.

“We know that tumors can wall themselves off with structural collagen proteins that resemble scar tissue, and that the presence of this obstacle determines the effectiveness of anti-cancer immunotherapies,” said Tharp.

“We want to know how and why tumors create this obstruction and understanding this will help us find ways to break through these defenses to make immunotherapies more effective.”

Tharp will conduct this research under the mentorship of Cosimo Commisso, PhD, the deputy director of the NCI-Designated Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys and a professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program, and David Schlaepfer, PhD, a professor in the department of OBGYN and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

“Too many ovarian cancer patients progress and do not respond to the standard of care, so finding new treatments is an extreme clinical need,” said Tharp.

“There is potential for immunotherapies to treat recurrent and metastatic cancer if we can bridge the divide between tumors and immune cells.”

The Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance is the oldest and largest ovarian and gynecologic cancer charity in the world. Since its founding in 1994, the alliance has grown into the leading non-government funder of ovarian and related gynecologic cancer research by investing more than $140 million in grants to scientists.

Institute News

Women in Science Lecture series spotlights structural biology and immunology leader

AuthorCommunications
Date

May 21, 2026

From left to right: Kelly Kersten, PhD, and Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, MBA. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
From left to right: Sanford Burnham Prebys NCI-Designated Cancer Center scientist Kelly Kersten, PhD, and structural biology and immunology leader Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, MBA. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

The series highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences.

On May 13, 2026, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute hosted the third event in the Women in Science Lecture Series. The first featured speaker was Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, MBA, professor, president and CEO of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

Saphire told the audience about a turning point in 2013 in her field studying how antibodies work against the Ebola virus. Antibodies are especially important treatments for infectious diseases that lack an effective vaccine, as was the case for the Ebola virus until 2019. Saphire described the challenge that emerged when an antibody predicted to be effective based on laboratory results had no effect on survival in animal studies, whereas a cocktail of three antibodies that was ineffective in laboratory cell culture tests actually protected every animal against the infection.

“Collectively, as a body of scientists, it became clear we were missing some information about how to study the neutralizing effects of antibodies,” said Saphire. “The key was seeing the clue that how well the treatment protected was dependent on what kind of cell it was made in and how that effected the antibodies’ ability to recruit the immune system.”

To enable experiments following up on that lead, Saphire organized a large coalition of academic, industrial and government labs from across the world. Each partner sent their antibodies or neutralization assays to a single location where they could be studied side by side under code names to protect intellectual property. The consortium fast-tracked a smaller study that led to the first therapeutic approved for treating Ebola, and the longer-term comprehensive study would go on to develop much better therapeutics for the disease. Due to this initiative’s success, Saphire was asked to lead a Gates Foundation-supported project to evaluate antibody therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2.

Saphire closed her presentation with her reflections on how to improve the scientific system so that it works better for researchers.

Kelly Kersten and Erica Ollmann Saphire with fireside chat moderator and cardiovascular researcher Sanjeev Ranade, PhD. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Kersten and Saphire with fireside chat moderator and cardiovascular researcher Sanjeev Ranade, PhD. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

“I’ve learned over 20 years that a siloed approach very much gives a siloed answer,” Saphire said. “It is important to find out how different experts’ interests and motivations align and intersect and then put resources behind that to find success.”

Sanjeev Ranade, PhD, assistant professor in the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases at Sanford Burnham Prebys, then moderated a fireside chat and audience question-and-answer session with Saphire and Kelly Kersten, PhD, assistant professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program at the Sanford Burnham Prebys NCI-Designated Cancer Center. Topics included: the remarkable power and complexity of the immune system; the contrast in needing to mitigate the immune system in allergies and autoimmune disease versus boosting it in the right ways in cancer and infectious disease; how to effectively introduce your work to people outside of science; how roles change as academic and leadership careers progress; and advice for students and trainees beginning their careers in biomedical research.

The Women in Science Lecture Series features events that are free and open to the public. The series is part of broader efforts at Sanford Burnham Prebys to foster an environment that nurtures the success of individuals from all backgrounds. The events are hosted by the Office of Workforce Engagement & Belonging and highlight the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences, while fostering mentorship and collaboration across the Torrey Pines Mesa.

Registration is open for the next event in the series on October 14, 2026.

Institute News

Southern California metabolism scientists meet on the Mesa

AuthorGreg Calhoun
Date

March 30, 2026

Speakers and attendees at the fourth annual SoCal Metabolism Symposium
Speakers and attendees at the fourth annual SoCal Metabolism Symposium.

The fourth annual SoCal Metabolism Symposium brought together hundreds of experts and trainees to share the latest advances

SoCal Metabolism Symposium co-organizer Brooke Emerling, PhD, opened the meeting held at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute on Friday, March 20, 2026, by celebrating the event’s momentum.

“In 2023, when it started, we had about 12 talks, 28 posters, about 120 attendees and three sponsors, and now we’re up to 18 talks, 64 posters, more than 200 attendees and six sponsors,” said Emerling, director of and associate professor in the Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program.

Speakers were mostly postdoctoral researchers and graduate students from Sanford Burnham Prebys, the Salk Institute, the University of California Irvine, the University of Southern California, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of California San Diego.

The event began with a session of scientific talks focused on the theme of cancer metabolism. Aaliyah Balagtas, a graduate student in the lab of Cosimo Commisso, PhD, at Sanford Burnham Prebys, discussed her research on a cellular scavenging process known as macropinocytosis that pancreatic tumors use to survive and grow when resources are scarce. The morning continued with a second thematic session focused on metabolism in aging and cell fate.

Before the event’s lunch break and poster viewing, Emerling introduced the symposium’s first-ever guest speaker from outside Southern California, Navdeep Chandel, PhD, the David W. Cugell, MD, Professor and professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care), Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at Northwestern University.

Chandel began by sharing his delight that the speakers in the morning sessions showed genuine enthusiasm and interest in studying mitochondria and targeting metabolism to improve human health and treat disease. He thinks there is a significant opportunity to use the fundamental knowledge we’re learning about intermediary metabolism in mitochondria and translate it into concrete advances for human health.

Brooke Emerling, PhD, is the director of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program.

Brooke Emerling, PhD, is director of and associate professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Chandel focused on one of his lab’s translational projects studying metformin, a longstanding, widely used, cheap and safe drug for treating high blood sugar in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Various studies have suggested that metformin also has anti-cancer effects and may reduce inflammation, but it was not clear how the drug worked in our bodies or cells to cause any of this to occur. Chandel shared soon-to-be-published data regarding how metformin builds up in the gut after being taken as a pill, and how it influences mitochondria there to systemically lower blood sugar.

The afternoon opened with a third set of thematic podium presentations centered on the topic of physiological metabolism and new techniques. The fourth and final session of scientific talks were grouped around the theme of immunometabolism.

Cosimo Commisso, PhD, is the deputy director of the National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys. He currently serves as the interim director while a national search is conducted for a new center director.

Cosimo Commisso, PhD, is the deputy director of the institute’s NCI-Designated Cancer Center and a professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

The symposium’s closing podium talk was the Gina Lee Memorial Keynote, a lecture honoring cancer signaling and metabolism expert Gina Lee, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California Irvine, who passed away on June 23, 2024, at the age of 39.

Cosimo Commisso, PhD, the deputy director of the institute’s NCI-Designated Cancer Center and a professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program, delivered the 2026 Gina Lee Memorial Keynote and focused on a new direction for his lab. Aging is a major risk factor for pancreatic cancer that also can limit treatment options if a patient is too frail to be safely treated with surgery or other alternatives.

The average age of a patient diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is 70, and nearly two-thirds of cases are in people over the age of 65. Commisso and his lab members are rethinking how therapies in development will work for a frail and aging population that represents the majority of patients.

Following Commisso’s keynote address, the 2026 SoCal Metabolism Symposium concluded with a reception and second poster session. The next SoCal Metabolism Symposium will be held in March 2027 at the University of California Irvine.

Emerling organized the event in partnership with Peter James Mullen, PhD, assistant professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and Cholsoon Jang, PhD, assistant professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine.