The Josie Robertson Investigators Program

The Josie Robertson Investigators Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering supports the recruitment and advancement of exceptional young scientists at a crucial early stage in their careers. Josie Robertson Investigators are among the most accomplished scientists of their generation, and with the support of the program, they are addressing some of the most important challenges in cancer medicine, including cancer metastasis, the development of rational combination strategies to delay or prevent drug resistance, the effort to mobilize the immune system to combat cancer, and genomic studies aimed at identifying specific genetic determinants for therapeutic response.

Extraordinary work led by the investigators has included:

• identification of a single molecule necessary for metastasis in gastrointestinal and, likely, other cancers that provides a promising target to halt metastases before they emerge;
• discovery of an enzyme that might be targeted with drugs in a high-precision approach to make tumor cells with chromosomal instability (which drives metastasis, immune evasion, and drug resistance) more sensitive to immunotherapy; and
• completion of a practice-changing study suggesting that all patients with a blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a precursor to acute myeloid leukemia, should have the status of a particular cancer gene assessed at diagnosis because loss of both copies of the gene is evidence of a high-risk form of MDS, which requires more aggressive treatment.

Learn more about their contributions to cancer research