"It's been known for decades that cancer can flatten healthy day-night stress hormone rhythms,” says CSHL’s Jeremy Borniger. “What causes that?” In mice, Borniger’s lab found that breast cancer disrupts the brain-body feedback loop that regulates these rhythms. Stimulating key neurons in the hypothalamus at certain times restored healthy function, pushing anti-cancer immune cells into tumors and shrinking them significantly.

A revolutionary quantum sensing project that could transform cancer treatment by tracking how immune cells interact with tumours has been awarded a prestigious £2 million Future Leaders Fellowship.

The four-year fellowship, funded by UK Research and Innovation, focuses on a critical problem: immune cells often fail when they encounter cancer tissue because the tumour environment disrupts their metabolism. The pathbreaking project could enable the development of improved patient-tailored cancer therapies and provide tools for earlier diagnosis and evaluation of anti-cancer drugs.