Latest news with #WeillCancerHubEast
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Weill Cancer Hub East launches to transform treatment
The Weill Cancer Hub East, a collaborative initiative formed by Weill Cornell Medicine, Princeton University, The Rockefeller University and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, has been established to explore the interplay between nutrition, metabolism and immunotherapy in cancer treatment. The initiative was launched with a $50m gift from the Weill Family Foundation. The Weill Cancer Hub East brings together experts from the four institutions to improve immunotherapy, a therapeutic strategy that uses a patient's immune cells for treatment. It aims to drive cross-field partnerships, combining cancer biology, immunology, trials, metabolism and nutrition experts. With philanthropy from each partner institution, total funding will exceed $125m. Up to 2034, the hub will explore the connection between solid tumours and their environment. It also aims to understand how diet and beneficial microbes that help metabolise food can influence cancer treatment effectiveness. The initiative will investigate how emerging therapeutics such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists are used in diabetes and anti-obesity treatments, which may affect cancer progression and treatment. The Weill Cancer Hub East will leverage metabolomics, computational analysis, immunology and AI to study how metabolism impacts the immune system's cancer-controlling ability. It will provide seed funding for collaborative projects focusing on reprogramming the tumour microenvironment and augmenting cell function through patients' metabolisms and microbiomes. The hub will provide a portfolio of trials, including assessment of the GLP-1 agonist effects on cancer subjects' immune responses and results. The outcomes may also apply to metabolic, autoimmune and cardiovascular conditions. The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, a cancer research sponsor, is funding studies in cancer metabolism and immunotherapy, providing additional support to the hub's efforts. A scientific steering committee, with leaders from each academic institution, will oversee the hub's activities. The scientific strategy of the hub will be directed by a leadership committee, including representatives from partner institutions and the Weill Family Foundation. The adaptable structure of the hub will allow it to respond to upcoming directions in cancer research. The hub is the second collaborative entity established by the Weill family and the Weill Family Foundation through their philanthropy. Weill Family Foundation founder and Weill Cornell Medicine Board of Fellows chair emeritus Sandy Weill stated: 'The Weill Cancer Hub East will offer doctors and scientists a tremendous opportunity to revolutionise the treatment of cancer, a disease that complicates so many lives.' "Weill Cancer Hub East launches to transform treatment" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Forbes
27-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Weill Family Foundation Donates $50 Million For New Cancer Hub
A $50 million gift by the Weill Family Foundation is bringing together four leading research institutions to form the Weill Cancer Hub East. The new partnership, aimed at advancing immunotherapy as a treatment strategy for cancer, involves Princeton University, The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Directed by benefactors Joan and Sanford I. Weill, the former CEO of Citigroup, the gift will be matched by funding from each of the partner institutions that will total more than $125 million when combined. 'The Weill Cancer Hub East will offer doctors and scientists a tremendous opportunity to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, a disease that complicates so many lives,' said Sandy Weill, founder of the Weill Family Foundation, in a press release. 'With the best minds in the field armed with the most advanced research techniques, the Weill Cancer Hub East will seek to elevate immunotherapy and improve patient care for people battling cancer. Joan and I could not be more excited about the endless possibilities of this special partnership—investment in science and medicine is our labor of love," Weill added. Immunotherapy is a relatively new cancer treatment approach that uses a patient's own immune cells to recognize and treat cancer.'How we can increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy across all cancer types and patients is one of the scientific questions that most needs answering,' said Dr. Robert A. Harrington, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, in the release. The Weill Cancer Hub East will form multidisciplinary teams of experts in cancer biology, computational analysis and artificial intellience, cancer clinical trials, immunology, nutrition and metabolism to explore the relationship between solid tumors and the environment where they form and grow. A three-person scientific steering committee will oversee the hub's scientific activities. The committee members are: In addition, a leadership committee, made up of leaders from Princeton, Rockefeller, Weill Cornell Medicine and Ludwig, along with representatives from the Weill Family Foundation, will direct the hub's scientific strategy, according to the release. This is not the first example of the Weill Family Foundation's investment in multidisciplinary, biomedical science. Their $106 million gift led to the founding of the Weill Neurohub in 2019. That center brings together scientists and clinicians from the University of California at San Francisco, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington and the Allen Institute to develop new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disease. A graduate of Cornell University, Sanford "Sandy" Weill made his fortune in the financial services industry. His first job was as a runner for Bear Stearns in 1955, earning $150 a week. Later he formed a brokerage firm with partners and built it into Shearson Loeb Rhoads, which he sold to American Express for nearly $1 billion in 1981. Weill served as CEO of Citigroup until 2003 and chairman until 2006. According to the news release, the Weill family and the Weill Family Foundation have given more than $1 billion in total for various causes in the United States and around the globe, ranging from education, social causes, music and the arts to medical research and patient care.
