The 2026 TIME100 Health list was released this week, recognizing the individuals transforming the landscape of modern medicine. Among the honorees are two visionary scientists whose work is redefining what is possible in oncology, and who The Mark Foundation is proud to count among our grantees: Catherine Wu and Darrell Irvine.
Catherine Wu: Designing Personalized Cancer Vaccines
Recognized by TIME for her work on personalized cancer vaccines, Catherine Wu, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, is moving the field toward a future where “one-size-fits-all” treatment is a thing of the past. By using genetic sequencing and algorithms to identify neoantigens unique to an individual’s specific tumor, Wu’s lab has developed vaccines that train the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells with surgical precision. Early trials in melanoma, glioblastoma, and kidney cancer are showing promise for preventing recurrence. But like other cancer treatments that depend on the immune system, these vaccines don’t work in all patients—and Wu is working to overcome that challenge, too.
A 2023 Endeavor Award team led by Wu, Nir Hacohen, PhD, and Fei Chen, PhD is currently investigating resistance mechanisms to T cell-directed immunotherapies with a multipronged approach that draws on expertise in spatial genomics, antigen discovery, and T cell manipulations. By mapping how T cells interact within the tumor microenvironment in colorectal and ovarian cancers, they aim to more precisely engineer T cell therapies that achieve better, more durable disease control.
Darrell Irvine: Engineering a Smarter Immune Response
Darrell Irvine, PhD, of the Scripps Research Institute, was highlighted by TIME for his work developing better-targeted treatments and vaccines. One of his key breakthroughs involved engineering vaccines to “hitchhike” on existing proteins to reach the lymph nodes, from which they can circulate throughout the immune system.
Irvine has received two Mark Foundation ASPIRE Awards to support his research into more effective anticancer immunotherapies:
- 2021 ASPIRE Award: Most therapies target just one or two markers on a tumor, but cancers are heterogeneous. Irvine developed a unique approach using a vaccine-like technology to amplify the impact of CAR T cell therapies by teaching the body to recognize multiple different targets within a tumor simultaneously.
- 2023 ASPIRE Award: Cytokines are powerful, naturally occurring molecules that boost function of the immune system, but efforts to administer cytokines systemically as anti-cancer therapies have often failed due to toxicity. Irvine’s 2023 award, shared with Dane Wittrup, PhD, focused on “tethering” these molecules directly to the surface of immune cells to provoke a targeted immune response within the tumor, without dangerous side effects.
Advancing the Future of Precision Medicine
Wu and Irvine’s recognition on the TIME100 Health list underscores a broader shift in cancer research, away from broad-spectrum treatments and toward sophisticated, precision therapeutics tailored to individuals. Their work continues to reshape approaches to cancer research and therapeutic development, and we congratulate them on this well-deserved honor.