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Announcements

• 9/25/19: The ASCO Post interviews Center director Andy Minn about the scientific vision of MFCIIR@Penn. Read it here.

• 11/26/19: Center scientist Jorge Henao-Mejia and Sara Cherry were both honored with Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence. Jorge received the Micheal S. Brown New Investigator Award and Sara received the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award.

• 01/09/20: Congratulations to Costas Koumenis, Lei Dong, and colleagues on their manuscript on Proton FLASH Radiation. See Penn press release. This is one of the first studies describing proton FLASH dosimetry, tumor killing, and sparing of normal GI tissue toxicity.

• 02/10/20: Read about a FLASH Radiation clinical trial for dogs with bone cancer conducted by the Penn School of Veterinary Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine.

• 08/01/21: New paper from Center investigators Dr. Andy Minn and Dr. Carl June, on The Immunostimulatory RNA RN7SL1 Enables CAR-T Cells to Enhance Autonomous and Endogenous Immune Function. See Penn press release. This work describes a new kind of CAR-T cell with enhanced function AND the ability to recruit the body’s own endogenous T cells in order to reject tumors typically resistant to CAR-T cell therapy.

• 03/06/22: NIH P01 awarded to Penn to study and develop FLASH radiation. See Penn press release. Center investigator Costas Koumenis will help lead a multi-disciplinary and international group of scientists from Penn, Duke, Oxford University, and University of Heidelberg.