Pediatric oncologist, Dr. Joannes Zakrzewski, MD, was awarded a $250,000 grant from Hyundai Hope on Wheels to improve care and treatment for kids with cancer. HHOW is presenting 24 recipients throughout the country with a total of $7.5M in 2016 in award grants. This organization has been funding childhood cancer research since 1988 and so far, has awarded $115M for pediatric cancer research. On Tuesday, September 27, the Scholar Grant was presented with a Handprint Ceremony featuring local young cancer patients’ handprints on a canvas.

Dr. Craig Thompson, MD was honored earlier this month by Thomson Reuters as one of their 2016 Citation Laureates in Physiology or Medicine for his work on explaining how CD28 CTLA-4 regulate T cell activation and therefore modulate immune response. Since 2002, Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates have been awarded in the following Nobel categories: Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics. “All the researchers have demonstrated themselves, by their contributions and citation records, to be ‘of Nobel class’ and worthy of future Nobel recognition. And many of their Citation Laureates do accomplish that, in the past 14 years 39 of Thomson Reuters selected laureates went on to win that ultimate prize, 9 in the same year that they were named Citation Laureates and 16 within two years.

MSK epidemiologist, Dr. Helena Furburg, MSPH, PhD, and kidney surgeon, Dr. Ari Hakimi, MD, studied the mechanism behind the “obesity paradox” and found that patients with kidney cancer who were obese had lower expression of the gene FASN, which encodes the enzyme fatty acid synthase which makes fatty acids. Those with lower gene expression had slower progression of kidney tumors.

Cycle for Survival will be spinning their wheels in Times Square on September 30 for their fourth annual Times Square Takeover. This all-day event will feature 100+ stationary bikes and rides led by instructors from Equinox and will be commemorating Cycle for Survival’s eleventh year of riding in 2017.