Researchers at Ludwig Oxford and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center discovered that the tight physical confinement of tumor cells by surrounding tissues has epigenetic consequences that can influence melanoma progression. Rather than continuing to divide, squeezed cancer cells activate a program of ‘neuronal invasion’ and spread into neighboring tissues. They also build a cytoskeletal cage (yellow) around their nuclei (blue) to prevent their rupture.
Read MoreA collaboration between Ludwig Princeton researchers and colleagues at the University of Zurich and the University of Pennsylvania showed in preclinical studies that a diet deficient in amino acids arginine and proline improves the efficacy of DFMO, a drug approved for the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. The combination arrests tumor growth not by killing cancer cells but by inducing their differentiation.
George Coukos, who recently returned stateside following an extraordinarily productive tenure as the founding director of the current Lausanne Brach, has been tapped to lead a new Ludwig Laboratory for Cell Therapy at Well Cornell Medicine.
Read More
