Dr. Ashley Laughney

Dr. Ashley Laughney, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, has won a 2024 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have uncovered steps that lead to lung tumors called adenocarcinoma turning into a much more aggressive small cell lung cancer that spreads rapidly and has few options for treatment. This problematic process is sometimes seen when patients stop responding to initially effective treatments. The findings advance the understanding of how mutated genes can trigger cancer evolution and suggest targets for more effective treatments.

A study led by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medicine discovered a new relationship between cancer cells and the immune system, and shows how cancer can selfishly hijack a normally helpful immune pathway.

A team co-led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine has revealed in detail how the most common primary eye cancer in adults, uveal melanoma (UM), can progress from a slow-growing, “indolent” state to a lethal metastasizing state. The discovery is a significant advance in fundamental cancer research that also suggests new strategies for treatment.