Marcus Ruscetti Awarded Prestigious Cancer Research Prize
Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, is one of 13 early-career scientists selected to receive the 2026 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize from the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance. The highly competitive award is designed to give promising investigators the freedom to pursue bold, high-risk research at a stage when conventional funding opportunities can be limiting. Traditionally restricted to researchers in the New York metropolitan area, in 2026 the program expanded and was opened to institutions across the United States.
Dr. Ruscetti’s research program seeks to uncover how immunologically “cold” tumors, particularly pancreatic and prostate cancers, evade immune surveillance, with the goal of translating these insights into novel therapeutic strategies to boost immune responsiveness to eradicate these deadly malignancies.
A major area of the lab’s research centers on cellular senescence. Dr. Ruscetti previously demonstrated that inducing senescence in mouse models of pancreatic cancer can sensitize tumors to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy (Ruscetti et al. Cell 2020). More recently, Dr. Ruscetti and colleagues showed that combining senescence-inducing agents with nanoparticle-mediated delivery of innate immune agonists produces durable anti-tumor responses in pancreatic cancer models (Chibaya et al. Science Translational Medicine, 2025).
Although senescence can suppress tumor growth in some contexts, senescent cells can also promote immune suppression and tumor progression. Through his Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize project, Ruscetti will investigate how senescent cells in the liver contribute to the formation of an immunosuppressive environment that supports pancreatic cancer metastasis. His lab will test whether targeted nanoparticle therapies can selectively eliminate these senescent cells, blocking the spread of PDAC to the liver and improving responses to immunotherapy.
In addition to providing research funding, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance connects prize winners to a network of researchers, industry mentors, and potential investors, and provides them with opportunities to present their work at conferences and events.
For more information, read the Pershing Square Foundation’s press release and the related article from UMass Chan News.
