News

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) held its Academic Convocation and Commencement on May 15, 2024, celebrating new graduates and award winners. Our Chairman, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., namesake of the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School, had the opportunity to honor the graduates. This year, 10 students earned their doctoral degrees in cancer biology from the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSK). In addition, five practicing MSK doctors received Master of Science degrees in clinical and translational cancer research from GSK. Keynote speaker Elaine Fuchs, PhD, received an honorary degree for her contributions to science. Congratulations to all the graduates on their achievements!

Gerstner Philanthropies is excited to launch the search for a Program Officer for our Helping Hands Program. Based in our family office in Armonk NY, the Program Officer will collaborate with the Program Director to source, cultivate and assess potential investment opportunities as well as help build out and grow our Helping Hands College portfolio. The goal of the Helping Hands program is to provide students with financial support when they need assistance with emergency expenses ensuring that they stay enrolled in college and complete their education.

MIT researchers are developing a system for reducing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas at dairy farms and other sites. Methane traps much more heat per pound than carbon dioxide, making it a powerful contributor to climate change. “In fact, methane emission removal is the fastest way that we can ensure immediate results for reduced global warming,” says Audrey Parker, a graduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The Mark Whittier and Lila Griswold Allam Associate Professor of Ruminant Nutrition, Dipti Pitta, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) has received a $508,884 grant from Gerstner Philanthropies to support Pitta’s continuing work to imprint the rumen function and prevent methanogen colonization in dairy calves with the potential of permanently curbing methane emissions from dairy herds in the United States.

Scientists from the Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics at the Broad Institute and their colleagues at MIT have developed two agents that could one day be given to patients shortly before a blood draw to allow physicians to better detect tumor DNA using liquid biopsy. Liquid biopsies have the potential to transform how cancers are diagnosed, monitored, and treated by detecting DNA that tumors shed into the blood, but the body presents a significant challenge. Immune cells in the liver and DNA-degrading enzymes in blood remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream within minutes, making this DNA difficult to capture and detect in a blood test. Now, researchers at MIT and the Broad Institute have developed injectable "priming agents" that enhance liquid biopsy accuracy. These agents, using nanoparticles and antibodies, significantly increase the detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the bloodstream. In mouse trials, these agents boosted ctDNA by over 10 times, improving the detection rate from below 10% to over 75%. This breakthrough could not only transform cancer diagnostics but also holds promise for other health areas. Director of the Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics, Viktor Adalsteinsson shared “Boosting circulating tumor DNA in blood is just the tip of the iceberg… Priming is a new frontier we’re excited to further develop in cancer diagnostics and beyond.”