Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD, the Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has received a Drug Discovery Initiative Award from the Children’s Tumor Foundation to pursue a new strategy for targeting RAS biology in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The award provides $100,000 per year for two years to support Chernoff’s work on what he calls a “Ras-GAP glue,” a small-molecule approach designed to bring together two proteins that help regulate cell signaling: RAS and p120RasGAP. The project builds on growing momentum around RAS-targeted therapies. In August, the FDA approved daraxonrasib for certain patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, showing that new ways of targeting RAS can lead to meaningful advances for patients. Chernoff’s work explores a related idea in a different setting: using a small molecule to change how RAS interacts with other proteins in the cell.

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• First-in-class targeted therapy shows promise against hard-to-treat cancers
• Tile-based radiation therapy dramatically reduced recurrence of brain metastases
• Targeting individual metastases in oligometastatic breast cancer did not improve survival
• Personalized guidance boosts family genetic testing for hereditary cancers
• AI tool uncovers signals that either attract immune cells to tumors or keep them out

At The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, research breakthroughs are made possible through seamless collaboration between the institution’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. The studies below showcase the latest advances in cancer care, research and prevention, as of October 15, 2026.

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Why African genomics holds the key to precision medicine and global health equity

Africa is home to more human genetic diversity than anywhere else on Earth. The average African genome shows nearly a million more genetic variants than the average non-African genome. But this wealth of data remains largely unexplored, with African populations historically under-represented in research. Less than 3% of global genomic datasets and genome-wide association studies include participants of African descent. Renowned African researchers have released a new book to explain what we know about the continent’s remarkable genetic diversity, showcase on-the-ground research being carried out today, and set out a roadmap for future discoveries. “Genomics in Africa” is designed to support the next generation of African scientists, providing vital information for researchers, funders, and policymakers working to advance genomics and precision medicine in the continent. It is co-edited by Professor Segun Fatumo of Queen Mary University of London, and Dr. Tinashe Chikowore of Harvard Medical School, who believe there is an urgent need to invest in African genomics research.Professor Fatumo says: “Genetic research on the African continent could create more effective precision medicine, improve global drug development, and help scientists understand everything from our evolutionary history to why some people develop particular diseases.”

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Aarhus University researchers reveal how plants distinguish harmful fungi from beneficial partners

Chitin, a chain of repeating sugar molecules, is the main building block of fungal cell walls. When fungi grow or are broken down, fragments of chitin chains of different lengths end up in the soil, and plants detect them to monitor the microbes around them. Long chitin fragments are commonly associated with fungal attack and trigger strong plant immune responses. But not all fungi are bad. Shorter chitin fragments, meanwhile, are associated with beneficial partnerships, including interactions with symbiotic fungi that exchange essential nutrients with their hosts. What remained unknown was how plants can tell these signals apart.

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Molecular biologist Elke Deuerling from the University of Konstanz receives the Dr. K.H. Eberle Prize 2026, worth 100,000 euros

On the evening of October 7, 2026, the Dr. K.H. Eberle Foundation awarded the Dr. K.H. Eberle Prize, which carries prize money of 100,000 euros. The recipient of the 2026 prize is Elke Deuerling, PhD, a molecular biologist in the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz, for the project “The Timing of Life: Controlling Translation to Prevent Neurodegenerative Diseases.” In this project, she and her team will investigate whether age-related changes in the process of protein synthesis within our cells contribute to the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and whether this process could serve as a target for interventions aimed at influencing disease progression.

“I am deeply grateful to the Dr. K.H. Eberle Foundation for its confidence in our project. Their generous support will enable us to take a fresh look at the origins of neurodegenerative diseases and gain fundamental insights that could, in the long term, pave the way for new therapeutic approaches. I’m excited to get started on this project with my outstanding team”, says Deuerling at the prize ceremony.

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The largest study of flight costs in the wild finds that riding the air can make flying cheaper than swimming, overturning a textbook ranking

An Andean condor and a trumpeter swan both weigh about 11 kilograms. Yet the condor covers each kilometer of flight for about a fifth of the swan’s energy bill. The difference is the air: the condor rides rising currents and flaps for 0.1% of its flight time, while the swan flaps for 99%. A new study of 50 bird and bat species in the wild showed that once the atmosphere is taken into account, flying can be the cheapest form of travel. “To us, the sky might just look like background for flying animals, but it is an essential resource that can dramatically change the cost of a journey,” says first author Dr. Martina Scacco. Textbooks rank the ways animals travel by cost: swimming is the cheapest, flying comes next, and running is the most expensive. That ranking comes from laboratory measurements of animals in swim tanks, in flight tunnels, and on treadmills. Outside the lab, the study found that this ranking changes. “The laboratory rules tell us that condors and swans must have the same energy bill because they have the same body mass. Yet seeing how condors soar and swans flap, we know that clearly there must be a difference,” says senior author Prof. Emily Shepard from Swansea University.

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Redesigned nanoparticles preserve expression in local area while sharply reducing liver expression

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have become the most widely used non-viral delivery system for mRNA therapeutics, with successful clinical applications in vaccines and gene editing. However, a major hurdle remains: conventional LNPs tend to accumulate in the liver, even after local administration. This liver bias limits their effectiveness for treatments that need to act locally, such as in muscle, brain, or eye, and raises concerns about off-target effects.

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In Ewing sarcoma, an abnormal protein formed by the fusion of two genes can activate repetitive DNA regions that normally remain silenced and turn them into gene regulatory elements. This mechanism contributes significantly to the development of this tumor and is one of its best-studied molecular hallmarks. A team led by Dr. Cayetano González, research professor (emeritus) at IRB Barcelona and ICREA, in collaboration with Dr. Jaume Mora, from the Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, has described how this type of activation can occur without the involved proteins being fused. The study, conducted in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, identifies collaboration between two proteins as a key requirement to activate these DNA regions. The work was published October 14, 2026 in G3 Genes, Genomics, Genetics. The open-access article is titled “The Drosophila FET Ortholog Cabeza Is an Essential Cofactor for ETV4-Mediated Activation of GGAA Microsatellite Neoenhancers.” Previous studies had observed that proteins from the ETS family (a major group of transcription factors) can also activate these sequences—known as GGAA microsatellites—in prostate cancer and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. However, the mechanism by which they achieved this without being part of a fusion protein remained unclear.

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Dramatic losses of Brazilian frogs in 1970s tied to deadly amphibian chytrid fungus

In the 1970s, researchers began to observe drastic amphibian declines in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, a global hotspot of frog biodiversity. For decades, these disappearances remained a mystery. Now, new research from scientists at the Center for Conservation Genomics at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) and Pennsylvania State University (PSU), published October 14, 2026 in the journal Molecular Ecology, points to amphibian chytridiomycosis, a devastating infectious disease, as the likely culprit. The open-access article is titled “Overcoming Detection Lag in a Cryptic Panzootic: Chytrid Invasion Linked to Historically Enigmatic Amphibian Declines in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.”

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The field’s premier convening returns to San Francisco, June 15-18, 2027, spanning breakthroughs in basic biology, advances in disease modeling and drug discovery, and new clinical data on cell-based therapies, with AI advancing work across all three.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) has opened registration and abstract submissions for the ISSCR 2027 Annual Meeting, taking place June 15-18, 2027 at Moscone West in San Francisco, California, USA. Marking the 25th anniversary of the ISSCR Annual Meeting, this hallmark event will bring together the global stem cell community to share groundbreaking discoveries, explore transformative technologies, and advance the future of stem cell science and regenerative medicine. 

As artificial intelligence, computational biology, and increasingly sophisticated stem cell-based models reshape the research landscape, ISSCR 2027 will showcase advances spanning fundamental discoveries in human development and disease, engineering biology, and emerging cell and gene therapies. ISSCR President Lorenz Studer, MD, founding director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA, will preside over the ISSCR Annual Meeting. The scientific program, led by Program Committee Co-Chairs Viviane Tabar, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA, and Matthias P. Lutolf, PhD, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, will feature pioneering research, emerging discoveries selected from submitted abstracts, interactive poster sessions, and opportunities for collaboration across academia, industry, and clinical research.

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