Somebody must have spiked the water at Ludwig labs. With what, we don’t know. But whatever it is, Link staff would love to get their ink-stained hands on some.
Evidence? Exhibit #1 would be the gobsmacking deluge of arresting, transformative, surprising—and often medically promising—discovery that has poured out of Ludwig’s Branches and Centers over the past few months. Even by Ludwig’s extraordinary standards, it’s been nothing short of astonishing.
Read on and you will see what I mean. You’ll learn of a previously unrecognized physiological function of platelets (see cover), one that may be readily harnessed to improve prenatal screening and liquid biopsies for cancer. You’ll discover how distinct immunologic subtypes of ovarian cancer are linked to DNA repair deficiency, how each distinctly evolves upon disease recurrence to resist therapy and potential interventions by which the resistance might be undone. Other research briefs relay findings from a pair of preclinical studies examining how diet and the microbiome affect responses to cancer therapy and illuminate the ways in which immature neutrophils suppress anti-tumor immune responses and immunotherapy in both primary tumors and bone metastases. And that’s just a random sampling of the scientific delights in the pages that follow.
Aside from that, we have the usual (usual!) news of Ludwig researchers winning prestigious awards, a small feature introducing a new member of our community—the chemist and Nobel laureate David MacMillan, who joined Ludwig Princeton in June as a distinguished scholar—and frontline reporting from Endicott House in Massachusetts, where your intrepid reporters infiltrated Ludwig MIT’s annual retreat and even returned home with pictures. Finally, we asked early career researchers from Ludwig Chicago, MSK and MIT to tell us a little about themselves and their work. We’re sure you’ll enjoy those interviews as much as we did.
Happy reading!
With warmest regards,
Unmesh Kher
Editorial Director