Weill Cancer Hub East
About the Weill Cancer Hub East
The Weill Cancer Hub East is a pioneering research collaboration uniting Princeton University, Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medicine to accelerate discoveries that address clinical unmet needs for patients with cancer. Established in 2025, the Hub brings together world-class scientists to investigate how nutrition, metabolism, and the immune system intersect to influence cancer treatment and immune responses against tumors.
This 10-year initiative was launched through a landmark $50 million gift from the Weill Family Foundation, which is matched with an additional $60 million in philanthropy from the three partner institutions and additional support from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, bringing together an investment of over $125 million.
Scientific Mission
While immunotherapies and engineered immune effector cell therapies have transformed care for many patients, their effectiveness remains inconsistent, particularly in solid tumors. Critical gaps persist in understanding why some patients respond while others develop resistance, and how individual physiological factors shape those responses.
Nutrition, the microbiome, and metabolism are key regulators of immune function and the tumor microenvironment, influencing immune cell activation, differentiation, trafficking, and durability of response. By understanding these interactions, the Weill Cancer Hub East aims to uncover actionable mechanisms that can be leveraged to improve and extend the benefits of current cancer treatments.
With the guidance of institutional leadership and a scientific steering committee comprised of Joshua Rabinowitz, MD, PhD; Sohail Tavazoie, MD, PhD; and Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, the Weill Cancer Hub East brings together leading investigators across Princeton University, Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medicine to address these challenges through integrated cross-disciplinary approaches that connect insights from basic science, translational research, and clinical medicine.
Pillar Themes
By bridging disciplines and institutions, the Weill Cancer Hub East fosters collaborations that seek to answer critical questions aligned with the following Pillar Themes:
Diet & Microbiome
How do diet and host microbiota shape anti-tumor immunity and resistance to therapy?
Metabolism & Tumor Microenvironment
How does cellular and systemic metabolism influence the immunologic permissiveness of the tumor microenvironment?
Clinical studies
How can we integrate advances in nutrition, metabolism and immunity to develop new and improved cancer therapies?
Collaborative Research Resources
To accelerate discovery across institutions, the Hub provides investigators with access to shared scientific resources - including platforms such as spatial and AI technologies, chemistry, computational and single-cell analysis, mouse modeling, and clinical research support - that help integrate advanced methodologies into collaborative studies.
WCHE Teams & Projects
In February 2026, the Weill Cancer Hub East launched a competitive selection process to identify collaborative scientific teams for the initiative’s next three-year research cycle (Thematic Teams), as well as pilot projects eligible for one year of funding (Pilot Projects).
We are pleased to announce the selected teams and projects led by investigators across the three partner institutions. These awards will support innovative, cross-institutional collaborations aimed at advancing our understanding of cancer and accelerating new approaches to prevention and treatment. We congratulate all awardees and look forward to the discoveries and advances that will emerge from their work.
THEMATIC TEAMS
Diet & Microbiome
- Dietary and microbiota dependent regulation of antitumor immunity
Investigators: Daniel Mucida (RU), Mohamed Donia (PU), Ned Wingreen (PU), Chun-Jun Guo (WCM), Iliyan Iliev (WCM)
- Neuronal and metabolic regulation of antitumor immunity
Investigators: Jeffrey Friedman (RU), Lydia Lynch (PU), Eileen White (Ludwig Princeton Branch), Ilana Witten (PU), Niroshana Anandasabapathy (WCM), Josh Rabinowitz (PU), Olga Troyanskaya (PU)
Metabolism & TME
Cellular and Organellar Metabolic Control of anti-tumor Immunity
Investigators: Sohail Tavazoie (RU), Kivanc Birsoy (RU), Tom Muir (PU), Dawid Nowak (WCM), Timothy McGraw (WCM)Impact of systemic metabolism on anti-tumor immune responses
Investigators: Timothy McGraw (WCM), Taha Merghoub (WCM), Roberta Zappasodi (WCM), Yibin Kang (PU), Sean Brady (RU), Kivanc Birsoy (RU)
Clinical
Intratumoral Injection of CD40 Agonist 2141-V11 with Pembrolizumab to Overcome Checkpoint-Inhibitor Resistance in Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Investigators: Ashish Saxena (WCM), Nasser Altorki (WCM), Jeffrey Ravetch (RU), Juan Osorio (RU), Vivek Mittal (WCM), Josh Rabinowitz (PU)Impact and mechanisms of obesity and GLP-1 medicines on cancer
Investigators: Eileen White (Ludwig Princeton Branch), Eugenia Girda (Ludwig Princeton Branch), Lydia Lynch (PU), Evelyn Cantillo (WCM), Eloise Chapman-Davis (WCM), Yuri Pritykin (PU), Kai Mesa (PU), Nicholas Collins (WCM), Jedd Wolchok (WCM), Paul Cohen (RU), Ekaterina Vinogradova (RU)Metabolic Programming of Adoptive Therapeutic T Cells to Overcome Tumor Resistance
Investigators: George Coukos (Ludwig/WCM), Juan Cubillos-Ruiz (WCM), Jonathan Villena-Vargas (WCM), Eileen White (Ludwig Princeton Branch), Christian Hinrichs (Ludwig Princeton Branch), Josh Rabinowitz (PU)
PILOT PROJECTS
- Fungal Microbiome Drivers of Metastatic Progression in Colorectal Cancer
Investigators: Iliyan Iliev (WCM), Norihiro Goto (WCM), Daniel Mucida (RU)
- The Gut Microbiome as a Driver of Immune Suppression in Colorectal Liver Metastases
Investigators: Manish Shah (WCM), Despina Siolas (WCM), Sean Brady (RU)
- The role of adipose tissue metabolism in linking the sympathetic nervous system to anti-melanoma immunity
Investigators: David Simon (WCM), Paul Cohen (RU)
- Multi-omic Identification of Metabolic and Proteomic Signatures of Lung Cancer Risk in Never-Smokers
Investigators: Oana Zeleznik (WCM), Lydia Lynch (PU)
WCHE Summer Internship Program for Princeton Undergraduates
In summer 2027, WCHE is launching an educational exchange program for Princeton University undergraduate students to spend one summer in Weill Cornell Medicine laboratories, training in research areas aligned with WCHE’s mission. The program provides a 7-week hands-on research experience for rising juniors and seniors pursuing STEM degrees at Princeton University.
Applications for Summer 2027 are now OPEN.
APPLY HERE
Contact
To learn more about the Weill Cancer Hub East, contact: Miriam Ferrer Gonzalez, PhD (mif4017@med.cornell.edu)