May 22, 2025: In this month’s Across the Consortium, the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium spotlights a wide range of updates from our member institutions. This issue covers the impact of budget cuts, celebrates distinguished faculty, honors Asian American Pacific Islander Desi Heritage Month, and announces key leadership additions. You’ll also find highlights of media coverage, participation in cancer conferences and forums, recent advances in cancer research and treatment, prevention and recurrence efforts, and the unveiling of new hospital facilities.
University of Illinois Cancer Center
The Association for American Cancer Institutes (AACI) published the commentary, “The Impacts of NIH Cuts and Uncertainty on Cancer Research Trainees,” authored by Cancer Center Director Jan Kitajewski, PhD, and Associate Director for Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC) Larisa Nonn, PhD.
Read more: https://cancer.uillinois.edu/commentary-impact-on-trainees/
Cancer Center at Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents the Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership each year to distinguished faculty who enrich the intellectual vitality of campus and the broader community. Rohit Bhargava, PhD, a professor of bioengineering and the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and the Phillip and Ann Sharp Director of the Cancer Center at Illinois, received the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award.
Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
May is Asian American Pacific Islander Desi (AAPID) Heritage Month. We spotlight Wen Zhang, PhD, a researcher whose journey from China to the lab at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center blends cultural tradition with scientific innovation.
Read more: https://cancer.iu.edu/about/news/stories/2025-05-07-aapid-heritage-month.html
University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center
Bevan Yueh, MD, MPH, has been named the inaugural chief physician executive for UI Health Care. He will begin his new role on July 31, pending approval from the Iowa Board of Regents. Yueh will also serve as a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery in the Carver College of Medicine.
Read more: https://uihealthcare.org/article/yueh-named-inaugural-chief-physician-executive-ui-health-care
University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center
Deputy Director of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stuart Martin, PhD, gave FOX Baltimore a behind the scenes look at how the research happening in the lab leads to cutting-edge cancer treatments.
Read more: https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/inside-the-lab-baltimore-researchers-fighting-cancer
University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center
The 2025 American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting was held in Chicago, Illinois, in April. Over 70 Rogel Cancer Center researchers participated in presentations, poster sessions and as session moderators to an international audience of cancer researchers. Check out the highlights from this year’s meeting.
Read more: https://www.rogelcancercenter.org/news/archive/aacr-2025-rogel-recap
Michigan State University Cancer Research
Cancer research in the U.S. is backed by a complex system of interdependent funding. Partners include academia, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology start-ups, federal agencies and private foundations. These groups rely heavily on each other and, when one struggles, the entire system suffers. Jeffrey MacKeigan, PhD, explains how cancer research funding works and what happens if there are cuts to those budgets.
Read more: https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2025/ask-the-expert-how-cancer-research-is-funded
Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota
Recently, a group of Masonic Cancer Center scientists developed a new treatment that uses gene editing to help the immune system fight advanced gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, such as colon, stomach, and pancreatic cancers. This treatment is currently being safely used in a clinical trial and has shown early signs of success! The results of the trial were recently published in Lancet Oncology and offer additional details on the potential effectiveness of the treatment.
Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center (University of Nebraska)
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center will continue its Let’s Chat Cancer forums on May 20 with a discussion by UNMC’s Nicole Shonka, MD, a cancer center member, on the impact of brain cancer in Nebraska. The Let’s Chat Cancer forums promote a conversation between researchers and local community residents, partners, and advocates about disease-specific topics. The events share research in cancer prevention and highlight risk factors present throughout the region.
Read more: https://www.unmc.edu/newsroom/2025/05/19/lets-chat-cancer-forum-on-may-20-to-address-brain-cancer/
Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University
Northwestern Medicine investigators have discovered new intracellular mechanisms that help specialized immune cells adapt and respond to disease and acute inflammation, findings that may inform the development of targeted therapies for cancer and tissue injury, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute
Experts in kidney cancer and interventional radiology from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) recently completed a third successful histotripsy procedure—a new, non-invasive way to treat cancerous kidney tumors available as part of an ongoing clinical trial.
Read more: https://cancer.osu.edu/news/histotripsy-for-kidney-cancer
Penn State Cancer Institute
For women ages 40 and above, mammograms are the best way to detect breast cancer early, when the disease is most treatable. Mammograms also reveal another important detail: whether you have dense breasts and might benefit from additional breast cancer screening.
Read more: https://pennstatehealthnews.org/2025/04/the-medical-minute-what-does-it-mean-to-have-dense-breasts/
Purdue University Institute for Cancer Research
Yoon Yeo, PhD, the Lillian Barboul Thomas Professor of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics in the College of Pharmacy, and a member of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research, the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery, and the Purdue Institute for Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease, discusses her research “Timely administration of drug combination improves chemoimmunotherapy of an immune-cold tumor” which was recently published in the Journal of Controlled Release.
Rutgers Cancer Institute
RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute, the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, have proudly unveiled New Jersey’s first and only freestanding, fully comprehensive cancer hospital. The Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center in New Brunswick is one of only 13 freestanding cancer hospitals in the United States.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (University of Washington)
Researchers in the lab of Hans-Peter Kiem, MD, PhD, at Fred Hutch Cancer Center have devised a method that could one day treat genetic hematologic disorders by correcting how the body makes blood cells. Their abstract, “Targeted Multiplexed Virus-Like Particles (MVPs) Enable Robust In Vivo Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) Engineering,” is one of several the team presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) in New Orleans, May 13-17.
University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center
Research shows that quitting tobacco use after a cancer diagnosis can lead to improved outcomes. Providing patients with support and evidence-based tobacco treatment is why the National Cancer Institute launched the Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I) in 2017. This initiative, coordinated by UW Health | Carbone Cancer Center and UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, has been transforming the way cancer centers across the U.S. help patients quit tobacco.
Read more: https://www.uwhealth.org/news/quitting-tobacco-use-still-beneficial-after-cancer-diagnosis
About the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium: The Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium was created in 2013 to transform the conduct of cancer research through collaborative clinical trials and observational studies that seek to improve the lives of cancer patients in the diverse communities we serve by leveraging the scientific and clinical expertise of Big Ten universities. The Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium creates a unique team research culture to drive science rapidly from ideas to treatment and prevention. Within this innovative environment, today’s research leaders collaborate with and mentor the research leaders of tomorrow. Since its founding, the Big Ten CRC has activated nearly 40 clinical trials across a wide range of cancer types, more than 1,000 participants have enrolled in Big Ten CRC studies, and more than 500 researchers have joined Big Ten CRC Clinical Trial Working Groups.
About the Big Ten Conference: The Big Ten Conference is an association of world-class universities whose member institutions share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and public service. Founded in 1896, the Big Ten has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics in the lives of students competing in intercollegiate athletics and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness. The broad-based programs of the 18 Big Ten institutions provide direct financial support for more than 11,000 participation opportunities on 350 teams in 42 different sports. The Big Ten sponsors 28 official conference sports, 14 for men and 14 for women. For more information, visit www.bigten.org.
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