In their quest to understand how cancers take root, grow and spread, scientists have for the past half-century explored the genetic aberrations and microenvironmental peculiarities of tumors and their constituent cells.

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and an international team of collaborators published findings August 20, 2026, in Nature Aging unpacking a biological paradox, finding that a well-known cell proliferation gene also plays a distinct role in cells that no longer proliferate. It served as a driver of chronic inflammation linked to age-related disease, marking it as a promising target for future therapies to reduce sustained inflammation and promote healthier aging.

A newly developed radiotheranostic pair, ⁶⁸Ga/¹⁷⁷Lu-NYM096,  can identify tumors and effectively deliver targeted radiotherapy to patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Using a small molecule compound, the new approach helps to mitigate toxicity issues common with treatment, offering a safe and feasible strategy for those with end-stage disease. This research was published in the September issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Researchers have developed fluorescent molecules that permit imaging how DNA is packaged inside living cells at unprecedented resolution, and in preserved cells, close to the width of the double helix itself. The advance raises the possibility that one day they could train an AI to look at how DNA occupies three-dimensional space inside cells for diagnosing and treating cancer and other types of conditions.

Scientists from Gladstone Institutes, UC San Francisco, and Stanford University, in collaboration with Biohub, have unveiled a massive, high-resolution functional map of human immune cells that promises to transform our understanding of how genetics control health and disease. Published in the journal Cell, the study represents a landmark achievement in immunology and genomics. By systematically stress-testing genes across the genome in 22 million human immune cells, scientists moved beyond mere DNA sequencing to decode the dynamic circuits that govern how these genes actually work in the context of health and disease.

MYC is a common oncogene that regulates tumour growth and spread, yet no approved drugs exist to target it. Researchers have now discovered how to turn MYC's metabolic grip on cancer cells into a fatal weakness.

SMU Associate Professor Gao Yini spearheads an award-winning project to assess the short- and long-term effects of preventive healthcare policies in Singapore.

Using an emulated target trial—a rigorous study design that approximates a randomized clinical trial using real-world data—researchers compared outcomes among patients who received rasburicase within 12 hours of developing TLS with those who received it later or not at all. Patients who received early rasburicase were about one-third less likely to require dialysis or die during their hospital stay compared with those who received delayed or no rasburicase treatment.