In the second quarter of 2026, Mark Foundation-supported investigators continued to accelerate cancer research across disciplines and disease areas. Highlights included groundbreaking studies in top journals published by researchers representing the breadth of The Mark Foundation’s grant programs.
Their findings deliver mechanistic breakthroughs, translational advances, and more, including early-phase clinical data on personalized neoantigen vaccines for glioblastoma, dietary and metabolic interventions that modulate anti-tumor immunity, targetable molecular glues, and innovative functional genomics platforms. Explore recent publication highlights below:
Postprandial lipid metabolism durably enhances T cell immunity
Published in Nature by Emerging Leader Award winner Greg Delgoffe, PhD
Cell-autonomous control of CAR signaling and receptor shedding via ADAM17-mediated proteolysis
Published in Cell by Endeavor awardee Julien Sage, PhD
Oncogenic and tumor-suppressive forces converge on a progenitor niche at the benign-to-malignant transition
Published in Cell by Endeavor awardees Scott Lowe, PhD and Dana Pe’er, PhD
Inducible, split base editors for in vivo cancer functional genomics
Published in Nature Biotechnology by Andy Minn, MD, PhD, and Junwei Shi, PhD, investigators at The Mark Foundation Center for Immunotherapy, Immune Signaling, and Radiation
KRASG12R-Mutant Pancreatic Cancer Features Limited ERK/MAPK Transcriptional Activity and a Distinctive Tumor Microenvironment
Published in Cancer Research by Kevin Haigis, PhD, member of the Cancer Grand Challenges SPECIFICANCER team
Age distinguishes selection from causation in cancer genomes
Published in Nature Genetics by Emerging Leader Award winner Kamila Naxerova, PhD
PARP1 suppression drives ROS resistance in aneuploid cancer cells
Published in Molecular Cell by Partnership grantee Teresa Davoli, PhD, member of the Cancer Grand Challenges SPECIFICANCER team
In vivo reprogramming of cytotoxic effector CD8 T cells via fractalkine-conjugated mRNA-LNPs
Published in Science Immunology by Momentum Fellow Shin Foong Ngiow, PhD
Adjuvant personalized multivalent neoantigen DNA vaccination for MGMT unmethylated glioblastoma: a phase 1 trial
Published in Nature Cancer by Momentum Fellow Elizabeth Garfinkle, PhD
Very low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet in treatment-naïve women with endometrial cancer and overweight: a randomized feasibility study
Published in Nature Communications by Marcus Goncalves, MD, PhD, recipient of a joint Mark Foundation-American Association for Cancer Research award
The molecular basis for nuclear pore destruction by a proximity-inducing molecular glue
Published in Cell Chemical Biology by Drug Discovery awardees Steven Corsello, MD, and Nathanael Gray, PhD
Distinct genomic and immunologic tumor evolution in germline TP53-driven breast cancers
Published in Nature Communications by ASPIRE awardee Arnold Levine, PhD
ResMap: A community resource for systematic mapping of therapy-persistent residual cancer cell dependencies across contexts
Published in Science Advances by ASPIRE II awardee Steven Altschuler, PhD
Plasma signals of lung tumor promotion for molecular cancer prevention
Published in Cell by ASPIRE II awardee Charles Swanton, MBPhD, FRCP, FMedSci, FAACR, FRS
Single-cell mapping of regulatory DNA-protein interactions
Published in Cell by Emerging Leader Award winner Dan Landau, MD, PhD
Acquired genetic and cell-state changes in IDH-mutant glioma progression
Published in Nature by Emerging Leader Award winner Mario Suvà, MD, PhD