The Pershing Square Foundation Has Committed More Than $49 Million to 77 Scientists in the Greater New York Area to Support High-Risk, High-Reward Cancer Research
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance today announced the six winners of the 2025 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize, awarded annually to cancer research scientists and physician-scientists based in the greater New York City area. The Prize, totaling $4.5 million distributed in $750,000 grants to each winner, empowers investigators early in their independent careers to pursue their most exciting research projects at a critical stage when traditional funding is lacking.
Over the past twelve years, the Alliance has awarded over $49 million to 77 scientists at 14 institutions in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. With this funding, the recipients will contribute to the greater New York City area’s growing biomedical research hub. In addition to funding, the Alliance provides Prize winners with opportunities to present their work to scientific and business audiences to encourage collaboration and help bridge the gap between academia and industry.
“We are thrilled to partner with the six extraordinary recipients of this year’s Pershing Square Sohn Prize,” said Bill Ackman, Co-Trustee of The Pershing Square Foundation and CEO of Pershing Square. “The Prize empowers visionary scientists to pursue bold, unconventional ideas that have the potential to transform our understanding and treatment of cancer. It is an honor to support them at such a pivotal stage in their careers, and we look forward to the breakthroughs their research will bring.”
The winners of the 2025 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize are:
- Chrysothemis Brown, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Dr. Brown previously identified Thetis cells as a novel immune cell type that may play a key role in limiting the effectiveness of immunotherapy in the gut. This project will explore the roles of Thetis cells and dendritic cells in regulating immunity and tolerance in colorectal cancer.
- Luisa Escobar-Hoyos, PhD, Yale School of Medicine: The lab of Dr. Escobar-Hoyos is developing a novel pancreatic cancer vaccine that harnesses the body’s existing immunity to strep bacteria to target and destroy pancreatic tumors. Her Prize-funded research will investigate the mechanism behind this immune response and evaluate the vaccine’s effectiveness, potentially leading to a new therapeutic strategy against this deadly cancer.
- Alexander Gitlin, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Physician-scientist Dr. Gitlin investigates the connection between inflammation and cancer. His research focuses on the role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling and the cell death protease Caspase-8 in colonic inflammation and tumorigenesis. This work aims to reveal how TNF functions across different cell types to either maintain tissue homeostasis or promote malignancy.
- Ed Reznik, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Dr. Reznik and his team are using computational approaches to study cachexia—a debilitating syndrome characterized by muscle and fat wasting that affects over 50% of cancer patients, significantly reducing quality of life and tolerance to treatment. His research will integrate tumor sequencing and serological data with physiological metrics derived from radiologic imaging, enabling population-scale analyses to better predict which patients will develop cachexia.
- Liling Wan, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania: The Wan lab is investigating transcriptional condensates—membrane-less assemblies that concentrate transcriptional machinery at specific locations in the genome to regulate gene expression. Her project aims to uncover how cancer cells hijack these condensates to reshape 3D genome organization and control gene activity in ways that promote tumor development.
- Mark Yarmarkovich, PhD, NYU Grossman School of Medicine: Dr. Yarmarkovich pioneered peptide-centric chimeric antigen receptors (PC-CARs), an immunotherapy approach to target the essential genes that drive tumor growth. In this project, the Yarmarkovich lab will systematically map all potential CAR targets arising from critical driver genes across cancer types and develop a library containing hundreds of new PC-CARs against these cancer drivers.
“It is truly inspiring to witness the brilliance and imagination driving the next generation of cancer research. The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize honors not just innovation, but the vision and courage of scientists willing to challenge the status quo,” said Olivia Tournay Flatto, PhD, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance and President of The Pershing Square Foundation. “Their groundbreaking ideas come to life thanks to the foresight of our scientific advisors and the leadership of philanthropists who share an unwavering commitment to conquering cancer and saving lives.”
“The work to find new treatments and cures for cancer continues to be an urgent global health priority so we are heartened by the research approaches of this year’s Prize winners,” said Evan Sohn, Vice President of the Sohn Conference Foundation. “We are confident that with the passion, creativity, and insights we’ve seen from this group of scientists, they will make discoveries that will have a lasting impact for the patients for whom our Foundation fights.”
As part of the selection process, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance relied on and benefitted from the guidance of highly accomplished advisory and scientific review boards.
Prize Advisory Board members include:
- Jeanne B. Ackman, MD, Radiologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
- Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD, Former Chief Scientific Officer and President, Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical, Pfizer, Inc.
- Allan Goodman, PhD, President Emeritus, The Institute of International Education
- Pablo Legorreta, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Royalty Pharma
- Richard P. Lifton, MD, PhD, President, The Rockefeller University
- Tom Maniatis, PhD, Evnin Family Scientific Director & CEO, Board Member, New York Genome Center; Isidore S. Edelman Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University
- Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Columbia University Medical Center, and Author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and The Gene: An Intimate History
- James E. Rothman, PhD, Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and Professor of Chemistry, Yale University and 2013 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine
- Bruce Stillman, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Craig Thompson, MD, Former President and Chief Executive Officer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- George D. Yancopoulos, MD, PhD, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Regeneron
Additional details about the Prize winners can be found on the PSSCRA website at https://psscra.org/.
About the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance
The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance was formed in 2013 by The Pershing Square Foundation, which has since committed more than $49 million to 77 scientists, in partnership with The Sohn Conference Foundation. The Alliance is dedicated to playing a catalytic role in accelerating cures for cancer by supporting innovative cancer research and by facilitating collaborations between academia and industry. Annually, the Alliance awards The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize, which provides early-career, greater New York area-based scientists the freedom to take risks and pursue their boldest research at a stage when traditional funding is lacking. For more information, visit http://psscra.org/.
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