Phenotypic Drug Discovery, Moonshot, Partnership, and Publications

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Donna

A selection of interesting MSK-related news items:

The Phenotypic and Biomarker-based Drug Discovery symposium, presented by The New York Academy of Sciences’ Biochemical Pharmacology Discussion Group on October 27, 2015, featured current work in phenotypic drug discovery and highlighted the need to bridge commercial and academic research to improve phenotypic drug design. Read an overview of the event published on January 12. Several individuals helped to organize this meeting including Ralph Garippa, RNAi Core Head from MSK.

The Moonshot Initiative announced by President Barack Obama is drawing tremendous support. Dr. Baselga, Physician-in-Chief and Chief Medical Officer at MSK is quoted. View video from the World Economic Forum (YouTube; published on Jan 19, 1:05:47 min) to learn more about this endeavor. Listen to Vice-President Joe Biden as he speaks to international leaders in cancer research, cancer treatment and data science to discuss potential opportunities to advance the pace of progress in the fight against cancer.

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are partnering with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to back Grail, a new company hoping to turn simple blood tests into a viable method of detecting many types of cancer.

Findings presented at the January 4 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in San Francisco showed that aspirin may decrease death from prostate cancer. Dr. Howard Scher, Chief of the Genitourinary Oncology Service at MSK is mentioned.

In a research paper published in the Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology and entitled “Fertility Issues in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors,” Catherine Benedict, PhD, Elyse Shuk, and Jennifer Ford, PhD, from MSK evaluated the fertility concerns of 16-24 year olds who had been diagnosed with cancer between 14-18 years of age and were at least 6 months post-treatment. Preliminary findings of the data were also presented at the 36^th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Antonio, Texas on April 20, 2015.