Six researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine have received Young Investigator Awards from the Prostate Cancer Foundation. These three-year grants award $225,000 to postdoctoral fellows and early-career faculty, helping to energize the field with fresh ideas. The Weill Cornell investigators are part of thirty-one researchers overall who were selected for the PCF’s Class of 2025 Young Investigators. The awardees will investigate how the disease occurs at a molecular level, search for new therapies, and research how people can change their behavior or other aspects of their health to improve their prognoses.
This year’s awardees from Weill Cornell Medicine are Drs. Bashir Al Hussein Al Awamlh, Cheuk Man Cherie Au, Lise Brault, Xuanrong Chen, Kevin Kensler and Silvia Rodrigues.
2025 Royalty Pharma-PCF Young Investigator Award
Dr. Bashir Al Hussein Al Awamlh, Assistant Professor of Urology
Health Literacy in Advanced Prostate Cancer Care: Developing Evidence-Based Interventions to Support Patients with Low Health Literacy
Having low health literacy — defined as the ability to find and act on health-related information — raises mortality from prostate cancer two- to three-fold. Interventions that improve health literacy could therefore improve outcomes of prostate cancer treatment. Dr. Al Hussein Al Awamlh and his colleagues plan to develop two interventions for patients with advanced prostate cancer: a web-based program and peer coaching to help patients navigate their diagnosis and find information related to their treatments. They hope these interventions will increase adherence to medications and appointments and promote enrollment in clinical trials and genetic testing.
Mentors: Dr. Ruth Etzioni , Dr. David Nanus
2025 Michael Ferro-PCF Young Investigator Award
Dr. Cheuk Man Cherie Au, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pharmacology Research in Medicine
Developing First-In-Class AR/AR-V7 Molecular Glue Degrader to Revolutionize Prostate Cancer Therapeutics
Prostate cancer growth is largely driven by the androgen receptor, which turns genes on and off in response to male hormones. Most treatments block the hormone-binding part of the receptor. While initially effective, many patients eventually develop a more aggressive, drug-resistant form of the disease. Resistance often occurs because cancer cells produce altered forms of the androgen receptor that lack the drug-targeted region. Thus, these variants drive tumor growth despite therapy. To tackle this challenge, Dr. Au and colleagues screened approximately 170,000 compounds and identified one that destroys the receptor instead of blocking it, targeting both the full-length receptor and variant forms. The team is now studying how this compound functions at the molecular level and evaluating its effectiveness in preclinical models, alone and in combination with existing treatments. This research could lead to a first-in-class therapy that overcomes treatment resistance.
Mentors: Dr. Paraskevi Giannakakou ; Dr. David Nanus
2025 Tom Knight-PCF Young Investigator Award
Dr. Lise Brault, Postdoctoral Associate in Medicine, Nowak Lab
Defining Evolution of Prostate Cancer Metastasis Under Therapeutic Pressure Using Recordable Barcode
Drugs that deprive prostate cancer of hormones known as androgens can slow the disease substantially. Eventually, however, nearly all tumors adapt and evolve in ways that make androgen deprivation therapy ineffective. After that, treatment options are limited. Dr. Brault and her colleagues plan to recreate therapy-resistant metastatic prostate cancer in a mouse model, then track and characterize which subpopulations of the cancer cells survived, evolved, and disseminated to cause the resistance. The researchers hope their work will point to weaknesses in these altered cells that they can exploit to design new therapies.
Mentors: Dr. Dawid Nowak ; Dr. Christopher Barbieri
2025 Ruth Porat and Anthony Paduano-PCF Young Investigator Award
Dr. Xuanrong Chen , Postdoctoral Associate in Urology, Barbieri Lab
MBD4-Driven AR Reprogramming and Luminal Lineage Specification in Prostate Cancer
A DNA repair protein called MBD4 influences how the androgen receptor carries out its normal functions. When MBD4 is lost, the androgen receptor activity changes in ways that lead to prostate cancer. Dr. Chen and his colleagues intend to use organoids, or simplified organs grown in petri dishes, to study the interaction between MBD4 and androgen receptors. Their hope is to eventually find ways to manipulate this relationship, leading to new treatments for prostate cancer and methods to preserve normal prostate function.
Mentors: Dr. Christopher Barbieri ; Dr. Andrea Sboner
2025 David H. Koch Charitable Foundation–PCF Young Investigator Award
Dr. Kevin Kensler, Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences
Assessing the Impact of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists and SGLT2 Inhibitors on Advanced Prostate Cancer Risk and Outcomes
Dr. Kensler will study whether newer anti-obesity and diabetes medications (GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors) can improve outcomes for men with advanced prostate cancer. These drugs may not only help control weight and blood sugar, but also reduce side effects from standard hormone therapy (ADT), which often harms the metabolic and cardiovascular health for men with prostate cancer. Using large real-world datasets and a small clinical study, Dr. Kensler’s research will examine whether these medications lower the risk of aggressive prostate cancer, improve treatment tolerance, and enhance quality of life. The findings from this work could guide future clinical trials and help doctors better manage both cancer and overall metabolic health in these patients.
Mentors: Dr. David Nanus ; Dr. Laura Pinheiro ; Dr. Lorelei Mucci
2025 Ben Schenkman-PCF Young Investigator Award
Dr. Silvia Rodrigues, Postdoctoral Associate in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Loda Lab
Lipid Metabolism as a Key Regulator of Prostate Cancer State Transitions and Therapy Resistance
Prostate cancer cells rely on fat metabolism to grow and adapt to treatment, enabling them to become more aggressive and resistant to therapy. Dr. Rodrigues and her colleagues will investigate how a key fat-producing enzyme, FASN, drives these changes and whether blocking it can prevent tumors from shifting into treatment-resistant states. By combining metabolism-targeting drugs with dietary approaches, this work aims to develop new strategies to slow disease progression and improve outcomes for patients with advanced prostate cancer.
Mentors: Dr. Massimo Loda , Dr. David Goodrich