It has been an incredibly exciting and productive few months in the lab.​

 

Papers --- 

Harsha's paper on the role of pyroptosis in dormancy and reactivation was published in Nature Cancer. This work was largely performed in the late Filippo Giancotti's laboratory (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38195932/)

​

Meri's paper on liver-metastatic organotropism was published in Nature Cancer! (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38286827/) 

​

A major paper from the Alberto Ciccia's laboratory describing an intriguing role of SMARCAL1 in regulating innate immunity and PD-L1 expression. Members of our lab (Tricia) contribtued to this work published in Cell. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38301646/)

​

Massive congratulations to Zach Walsh whose paper on cell engineering using base editing was published in Nature Biotechnology. This was an incredible effort by multiple lab members (Johannes, Parin) and rotation students (Shiv, Neeha) among others. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38783148/)

​

People--- 

People are moving on to greater things!

​

Johannes matched at the Clinician-Scientist Program at Columbia University and will start his Internal Medicine Residency in June! Congrats Johannes, so proud of you!

​

Meri graduated the lab to start her own lab - more details soon!!! Can't wait to see work from your own lab!

​

Jana accepted an awesome role as computational biologist at Pfizer. All the best Jana, they are lucky to have you! 

​

Shiv went on to start residency at Weill Cornell/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. We are sad to see you leave, but we will get you back! 

​

New folks are joining!
 

Welcome Ron Gejman, a medical oncology fellow at Columbia who will do a post-doctoral fellowship to tackle some of the most difficult challenges in metastatic relapse. 

 

Welcome Associate Research Scientist Azzurra Cottarelli, who comes with incredible experience in blood brain barrier biology who will do amazing work at the interface of neurobiology and metastasis.

 

Welcome to 4 (!!) rotating students from the MD/PhD program - Jared Pollard, Sarah Grauman, Akul Naik and Dev Biswas who will do cutting-edge work in cell engineering and metastasis biology with Zach, Johannes, Lindsay and Leon.
 

Achievements, Prizes and Awards --- 

Congrats to MD/PhD students Edridge D'Souza and Luke Cai who passed their qualifying exam with flying colors! 

​

Zach won multiple awards and scholarships, including the Keystone Symposia Future of Science Fund Scholarship, the Broad Institute Mutational Scanning Symposium Travel Scholarship and the Broad Institute Mutational Scanning Symposium Top Poster Prize - all within 2 months!!

​

Ben was awarded the Harold and Golden Lamport Research Award in Basic Sciences the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons - a huge honor. 

​

Grants ---

We received a generous grant from the Melanoma Research Alliance! After being awarded a Young Investigator award, we received a MRA Team Science Award to study neural-like differentiation in melanoma brain metastasis. This is a tight collaboration with Eva Hernando (NYU), Sheri Holmen (Huntsman Cancer Center) and David Schoenfeld (Yale).

​

Media ---

The Izar lab was featured in the VP&S  News Room: https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/fighting-cancer-multiple-fronts.

 

Zach's paper was featured in the HICCC News Room! Worth a read! https://www.cancer.columbia.edu/news/improving-cell-therapy-creating-t-cell-super-soldiers 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members! 

Very productive month for the lab!​

​

Collaborative work on brain metastasis published in NPJ Precision Oncology: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-023-00471-z 

​

Perspective on how to go from human tissues to mechanisms published in Genes & Immunity (Johannes, Tricia and Meri)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41435-023-00224-9

​

Collaborative work on new spatial transcriptomics method with Raul Rabadan's group published in Genome Biology (Yiping)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38110959/

​

Co-led study on peripheral immune correlates and response to immunotherapy in lung cancer (co-first author Zach)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38114518/

​

Ben delivered a Grand Rounds lecture at Thomas Jefferson University presenting work led by our incredible MD/PhD students Tricia, Lindsay and Zach, with support from our outstanding post-docs Johannes, Meri and Somnath.

 

Ben represented the lab at the first AI meets Cancer Research (AIMCR) meeting in Barcelona, Spain. An outstanding conference that was followed by another symposium at the University of Barcelona. Hope to come back next year and bring more lab members!