The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance is dedicated to playing a catalytic role in accelerating cures for cancer by enabling the pursuit of the most innovative and advanced cancer research and by facilitating collaborations between science and business.
The Prize for young investigators provides early-stage funding opportunities to New York scientists with innovative ideas in cancer research. The program surrounding the Prize is a catalyst in bridging the gap between the academic scientific community and the business community.
SIDI CHEN, PHD
CHRISTINE IOK IN CHIO, PHD
MARCIN IMIELINSKI, MD, PHD
LILIAN KABECHE, PHD
ELENA PISKOUNOVA, PHD
XUEBING WU, PHD
MOUNT SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM – Mutation of a gene called ARID2 plays a role in increasing the chance that melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, will turn dangerously metastatic, Mount Sinai researchers report. The findings suggest that patients whose melanoma tumors have an ARID2 mutation may have a more aggressive cancer and may need to be treated differently, according to a study published in Cell Reports in April.
“Our study is the first to characterize the tumor-suppressive functions of ARID2 in melanoma,” said the study’s lead author Emily Bernstein, PhD, Professor of Oncological Sciences at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai and 2014 Pershing Square Sohn Prize winner. “We modeled ARID2 mutations by removing the ARID2 protein completely from melanoma cells and studied the consequences in the petri dish and in animal models. Recreating actual mutations that patients harbor is challenging, but now possible by genome editing, and would further provide a more accurate model; such studies are ongoing in the lab.”
On Tuesday, October 19th, 2021, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance held its Fifth Annual Pershing Square Sohn Retreat at the Simons Foundation in Manhattan, New York.
The Retreat highlighted the 2018 Pershing Square Sohn Prize winners who had just finished their third and final year of funding. These seven bold and creative scientists presented their research supported by the Prize to their peers, with robust Q&A discussions with guests in attendance both in-person and virtually via Zoom. The day concluded with fireside chat with an accomplished leader in academia and industry, Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair and Director of the Center for Cell Engineering at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, as well as the Scientific Co-Founder of Juno Therapeutics and Member of PSSCRA’s Scientific Review Council. The Pershing Square Foundation President and Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Co-Founder and Executive Director Olivia Tournay Flatto, PhD moderated the discussion.
Bill Ackman, Co-Founder. The Pershing Square Foundation