Latest Ari Melnick Stories
New insight into the aggressive behavior of certain adult B-acute lymphoblastic leukemias has provided researchers with a potential new prognostic biomarker and a promising new therapeutic target. The research, conducted by Ari Melnick, M.D., associate professor of medicine and director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical and Physical Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College and a hematologist-oncologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center,...
Researchers locate molecules that drive the development of 3 forms of deadly white blood cell cancers, pointing researchers to new potential therapeutic targets A team of national and international researchers, led by Weill Cornell Medical College scientists, have decoded the key "software" instructions that drive three of the most virulent forms of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). They discovered ALL's "software" is encoded with epigenetic marks, chemical modifications of DNA and...
New research reports on new method that reveals complete set of aberrant signaling pathways that give rise to cancers One major obstacle in the fight against cancer is that anticancer drugs often affect normal cells in addition to tumor cells, resulting in significant side effects. Yet research into development of less harmful treatments geared toward the targeting of specific cancer-causing mechanisms is hampered by lack of knowledge of the molecular pathways that drive cancers in...
Doctors who treat children with the most common form of childhood cancer "“ acute lymphoblastic leukemia "“ are often baffled at how sometimes the cancer cells survive their best efforts and the most powerful modern cancer drugs.Now a team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have uncovered the basis for this drug resistance: BCL6, a protein that leukemia cells use to stay alive. Targeting this protein may be the key to fighting drug-resistant...
Weill Cornell researchers report on targeted therapy to repress protein mutations in diffuse large B-cell lymphomasDiffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a type of aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that accounts for approximately 40 percent of lymphomas among adults. If left untreated, it is fatal. The existing treatments have a cure rate that is slightly over 50 percent but destroy healthy cells along with the cancer cells.Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have found a...
Three researchers who are recipients of a collaborative grant from the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation have developed a new type of drug designed to kill non-Hodgkin lymphoma tumor cells. The breakthrough could lead to potential non-toxic therapies for cancer patients. The Foundation-funded investigators include Ari Melnick, M.D., of Weill Cornell Medical College, Alexander MacKerell, Ph.D., of the University of Maryland and Gilbert Privé, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto. The...
Scientists are one step closer to developing a targeted therapy for lymphoma. New research, published by Cell Press in the April 13th issue of the journal Cancer Cell, identifies a specific small-molecule inhibitor that was nontoxic in animal experiments and could kill human lymphoma cells.BCL6 is the most commonly involved oncogene in diffuse large B cell lymphomas (DLBCL). Previous work has shown that BCL6 is required for survival of lymphoma cells and that blockade of the gene potently...
Upcoming clinical trial will test compound in patientsPhysician-scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered a molecular mechanism that may prove to be a powerful target for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects lymphocytes, or white blood cells. By exploiting this mechanism, researchers have been able to powerfully suppress tumor formation in lab testing and in animal models.Promising results have led to the design of a clinical trial that...
