News Archive
The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) is an international non-profit research institute dedicated to improving the understanding and control of cancer. Below are highlights of the Institute’s news.
June 12, 2013
IMMUNE DESIGN PARTNERS WITH LEADING CANCER ORGANIZATIONS TO ADVANCE NOVEL IMMUNOTHERAPY RESEARCH
The Cancer Research Institute, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Immune Design Form New Collaboration to Accelerate Clinical Testing of Immunotherapies for Cancer
June 12, 2013, New York, NY, and Seattle, WA - The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Immune Design, a biotech company focused on immune-based therapies for cancer and other human diseases, today announced that they have signed a collaboration agreement to advance cancer immunotherapy research. Specifically, the partnership will focus on clinical trials to test novel combinations of immunotherapies, including two investigational drugs from Immune Design’s pipeline.
June 02, 2013
A ONE-TWO PUNCH AGAINST CANCER
Concurrent treatment with two antibodies that boost the immune response to tumors in distinct ways appears to be highly effective against metastatic melanoma
June 2, 2013, New York, NY – A team of researchers led by Jedd Wolchok of the Ludwig Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) presented data today at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology showing promising results from a Phase I clinical trial evaluating the concurrent use of two immunotherapies for the treatment of advanced melanoma. The study is published in this week’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Wolchok and his colleagues found that a regimen of two antibody therapies—ipilimumab (Yervoy) and the investigational drug nivolumab—led to strong and durable tumor regression in patients with inoperable, metastatic melanoma, which is highly resistant to treatment.
May 31, 2013
ANTI-CD47 ANTIBODY MAY OFFER NEW ROUTE TO A SUCCESSFUL CANCER VACCINATION
May 20, 2013, Palo Alto, Calif. - Scientists at the Ludwig Center for Stem Cell Research and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University have shown that their previously identified therapeutic approach to fight cancer via immune cells called macrophages also prompts the disease-fighting killer T cells to attack the cancer.
ENGINEERED MOLECULES BOOST IMMUNE ATTACK ON CANCER
May 30, 2013, Palo Alto, Calif. - Building on previous research showing that cancer cells send signals to the immune system to avoid being attacked, Stanford University scientists, including several based at the Ludwig Center for Stem Cell Research at the university, have engineered new molecules that are highly proficient at neutralizing those signals. The molecules dramatically increase the effectiveness of certain existing cancer therapies and may open up other avenues for treating cancer using patients’ own immune systems.
ONCOGENE MUTATION HIJACKS SPLICING PROCESS TO PROMOTE GROWTH AND SURVIVAL
May 31, 2013, San Diego, Calif. - An international team of researchers – led by principal investigator Paul S. Mischel, MD, a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine – has found that a singular gene mutation helps brain cancer cells to not just survive, but grow tumors rapidly by altering the splicing of genes that control cellular metabolism.
May 30, 2013
PROFESSOR SIR DAVID LANE NAMED SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR OF THE LUDWIG INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH
May 30, 2013, New York, NY - Professor Sir David Lane, an internationally recognized and respected cancer researcher widely known for his discovery of the p53 tumor suppressor protein, joins the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research as its Scientific Director, commencing June 1, 2013. In this role, Professor Lane will lead Ludwig’s global cancer research effort, fostering collaboration, coordinating research activities and representing its international network of leading scientists.
May 09, 2013
MAPPING THE EMBRYONIC EPIGENOME
Researchers elucidate how precise chemical modifications across the genome turn genes on and off during early human development—and how those mechanisms are disrupted in cancer
May 9, 2013, New York, NY and San Diego, CA - A large, multi-institutional research team involved in the NIH Epigenome Roadmap Project has published a sweeping analysis in the current issue of the journal Cellof how genes are turned on and off to direct early human development. Led by Bing Ren of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Joseph Ecker of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and James Thomson of the Morgridge Institute for Research, the scientists also describe novel genetic phenomena likely to play a pivotal role not only in the genesis of the embryo, but that of cancer as well. Their publicly available data, the result of more than four years of experimentation and analysis, will contribute significantly to virtually every subfield of the biomedical sciences.
April 25, 2013
REVIVING A FOE OF CANCER
New research reveals how the tumor suppressor p53 is shut down in metastatic melanoma - and how it can be revived
April 25, 2013, New York, NY and Oxford, UK - Cancer cells are a problem for the body because they multiply recklessly, refuse to die and blithely metastasize to set up shop in places where they don’t belong. One protein that keeps healthy cells from behaving this way is a tumor suppressor named p53. This protein stops potentially precancerous cells from dividing and induces suicide in those that are damaged beyond repair. Not surprisingly, p53’s critical function is disrupted in most cancers.
April 22, 2013
A CHECK ON TENSION - LUDWIG DISCOVERY UPENDS MODEL FOR CELL DIVISON
April 21, 2013, New York, NY and San Diego Calif. - Ludwig researchers Arshad Desai and Christopher Campbell, a post-doctoral fellow in his laboratory, were conducting an experiment to parse the molecular details of cell division about three years ago, when they engineered a mutant yeast cell as a control that, in theory, had no chance of surviving. Apparently unaware of this, the mutant thrived.
April 11, 2013
LUDWIG UPPSALA DIRECTOR CARL-HENRIK HELDIN NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE NOBEL FOUNDATION
April 11, 2013, Stockholm, Sweden - At their regular meeting on April 26, 2013, the Trustees of the Nobel Foundation will elect Carl-Henrik Heldin of Uppsala as a new member of the Nobel Foundation’s Board of Directors. Heldin was born in 1952 and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, professor of molecular cell biology at Uppsala University, branch director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Uppsala and Vice President of the European Research Council (ERC).
April 10, 2013
LUDWIG PRESENTS ADVANCEMENTS IN IMMUNOTHERAPY AND EPIGENETICS AT AACR MEETING
April 10, 2013, New York, NY – A dozen Ludwig scientists from around the world presented the latest advancements in basic and clinical cancer research at this week’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2013. Progress in immunotherapy and epigenetics led the program with important diagnostic and treatment implications for emerging cancer therapy.
April 08, 2013
SCREENING BLOOD SAMPLES MORE COMPREHENSIVE THAN TRADITIONAL TUMOR BIOPSY
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Researchers using a tool called BEAMing technology, which can detect cancer-driving gene mutations in patients’ blood samples, were able to identify oncogenic mutations associated with distinct responses to therapies used to treat patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), according to a researcher who presented the data at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington D.C., April 6-10.
A HIJACKING OF HEALTHY CELLULAR CIRCUITS
April 8, 2013, New York, NY and San Diego Calif. - Proteins that control cell growth are often mutated in cancer, and their aberrant signaling drives the wild proliferation of cells that gives rise to tumors. One such protein, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), fuels a wide variety of cancers - including a highly malignant brain cancer known as glioblastoma. Yet drugs devised to block its signaling tend to work only for a short while, until the cancer cells adapt to evade the therapy. So far, much of the research examining such drug resistance has focused on how mutations of other proteins in cancer cells allow them to resist drugs.
March 26, 2013
LUDWIG CANCER RESEARCHERS HONORED AMONG FIRST CLASS OF FELLOWS IN AACR ACADEMY
March 26, 2013, New York, NY - Three Ludwig scientists were named as Fellows in the inaugural class of the AACR Academy, the most prestigious honor bestowed by the American Association for Cancer Research.
February 26, 2013
NOVEL COMBINATION THERAPY SHUTS DOWN ESCAPE ROUTE, KILLING GLIOBLASTOMA TUMOR CELLS
February 26, 2013, New York, N.Y. and San Diego, Calif. – Glioblastoma, the most common and lethal form of brain tumor in adults, is challenging to treat because the tumors rapidly become resistant to therapy. As cancer researchers are learning more about the causes of tumor cell growth and drug resistance, they are discovering molecular pathways that might lead to new targeted therapies to potentially treat this deadly cancer.
February 22, 2013
LUDWIG ONCOLOGIST VOGELSTEIN AT JOHNS HOPKINS RECEIVES $3 MILLION LIFE SCIENCES AWARD
Vogelstein is among 11 recipients of inaugural Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, world’s richest academic prize for medicine, biology school of medicine
February 21, 2013, Baltimore, US - Ludwig scientist Bert Vogelstein at Johns Hopkins, a pioneer in the field of cancer genomics, is among 11 scientists named the first winners of the world’s richest academic prize for medicine and biology. News of the award was first reported today by The New York Times.
February 18, 2013
PATHWAY CONTROLLING CELL GROWTH REVEALED
February 18, 2013 , New York, NY and Melbourne, Australia - A Melbourne-based research team has discovered a genetic defect that can halt cell growth and force cells into a death-evading survival state. The finding has revealed an important mechanism controlling the growth of rapidly-dividing cells that may ultimately lead to the development of new treatments for diseases including cancer.
February 05, 2013
ANTIBODY HINDERS GROWTH OF GLEEVEC-RESISTANT GASTROINTESTINAL TUMORS IN LAB TESTS
Monday, Feb. 4, 2013- STANFORD, Calif. - The effect remains even when the cancer cells have become resistant to other treatments, and the findings may one day provide a glimmer of hope for people with the cancer, known as gastrointestinal stromal tumor, or GIST. The scientists hope to move into human clinical trials of the antibody within two years.
February 04, 2013
A LITTLE TAG WITH A LARGE EFFECT
February 4, 2013, New York, NY and Oxford, UK - Nearly every cell in the human body carries a copy of the full human genome. So how is it that the cells that detect light in the human eye are so different from those of, say, the beating heart or the spleen?
January 29, 2013
4-ANTIBODY AND THE LUDWIG INSTITUTE EXPAND ONCOLOGY ANIBODY R&D PROGRAM WITH THREE NEW TARGETS
January 29, 2013 - Basel, Switzerland and New York, NY: 4-Antibody AG and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (the Ludwig Institute) today announced the signing of a multi-target R&D collaboration with Recepta Biopharma SA, the leading Brazilian developer of therapeutic antibodies founded by the Ludwig Institute and Brazilian investors. This represents an expansion of a partnership the Ludwig Institute and 4-Antibody initiated over a year ago. Financial details were not disclosed.
January 16, 2013
POTENTIAL NEW TREATMENT FOR GASTROINTESTINAL CANCERS DISCOVERED
January 17, 2013 - New York, NY and Melbourne, Australia - Researchers have identified a complex of proteins that promotes the growth of some types of colon and gastric cancers, and shown that medications that block the function of this complex have the potential to be developed into a new treatment for these diseases. The complex of proteins, known as mTorc1 (mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1), has previously been implicated in the development of some other cancers but this is the first time it has been shown to promote the growth of colon and gastric cancers that are associated with inflammation.
January 09, 2013
LUDWIG SCIENTISTS AT JOHNS HOPKINS USE PAP TEST FLUID TO DETECT CANCERS
January 9, 2013 - Baltimore, MD - Using cervical fluid obtained during routine Pap tests, Ludwig scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a test to detect ovarian and endometrial cancers. In a pilot study, the “PapGene” test, which relies on genomic sequencing of cancer-specific mutations, accurately detected all 24 (100 percent) endometrial cancers and nine of 22 (41 percent) ovarian cancers. Results of the experiments are published in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.