BUFFALO, NY – August 28, 2026 – A new research paper was published in Volume 17 of Oncotarget on August 19, 2026, titled “Incidence of KRAS G12C mutations in genitourinary malignancies; emerging target in precision medicine.”

James Weger-Lucarelli, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, received a five-year, $2.01 million award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in July to investigate how infected cells live and die, and what they signal to their neighbors when they do. The grant could eventually point toward better antiviral drugs and more effective virus-based cancer treatments.

In their quest to understand how cancers take root, grow and spread, scientists have for the past half-century explored the genetic aberrations and microenvironmental peculiarities of tumors and their constituent cells.

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and an international team of collaborators published findings August 20, 2026, in Nature Aging unpacking a biological paradox, finding that a well-known cell proliferation gene also plays a distinct role in cells that no longer proliferate. It served as a driver of chronic inflammation linked to age-related disease, marking it as a promising target for future therapies to reduce sustained inflammation and promote healthier aging.

A newly developed radiotheranostic pair, ⁶⁸Ga/¹⁷⁷Lu-NYM096,  can identify tumors and effectively deliver targeted radiotherapy to patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Using a small molecule compound, the new approach helps to mitigate toxicity issues common with treatment, offering a safe and feasible strategy for those with end-stage disease. This research was published in the September issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Researchers have developed fluorescent molecules that permit imaging how DNA is packaged inside living cells at unprecedented resolution, and in preserved cells, close to the width of the double helix itself. The advance raises the possibility that one day they could train an AI to look at how DNA occupies three-dimensional space inside cells for diagnosing and treating cancer and other types of conditions.

Scientists from Gladstone Institutes, UC San Francisco, and Stanford University, in collaboration with Biohub, have unveiled a massive, high-resolution functional map of human immune cells that promises to transform our understanding of how genetics control health and disease. Published in the journal Cell, the study represents a landmark achievement in immunology and genomics. By systematically stress-testing genes across the genome in 22 million human immune cells, scientists moved beyond mere DNA sequencing to decode the dynamic circuits that govern how these genes actually work in the context of health and disease.

MYC is a common oncogene that regulates tumour growth and spread, yet no approved drugs exist to target it. Researchers have now discovered how to turn MYC's metabolic grip on cancer cells into a fatal weakness.