Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center are set to play a pivotal role at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2025, co-organizing a methods workshop that highlights the integration of computational pathology, artificial intelligence (AI) and spatial multiomics to advance cancer research and precision oncology.
The workshop, “Integrating Computational Pathology, AI, and Spatial Multi-Omics in 2D and 3D,” will take place April 26 from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.It will be co-chaired by Tae Hyun Hwang, PhD (VUMC), Linghua Wang, MD, PhD (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), and Mingyao Li, PhD (University of Pennsylvania). This session will provide a deep dive into how AI-driven 3D spatial molecular and multimodal approaches are transforming the landscape of oncology research and clinical applications.
Hwang, a national leader in AI-driven oncology research and director of AI Research in the Section of Surgical Sciences at VUMC, is the founding director of VUMC’s Molecular AI Initiative. He will present a talk titled “AI-Driven 3D Spatial Mapping of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment for Precision Oncology,” based on novel technologies his lab is utilizing and developing, integrating advanced holotomography with AI-driven spatial sorting and molecular profiling techniques.
Tae Hyun Hwang, PhD
Hwang co-leads the National Cancer Institute Pre-Gastric Cancer Human Tumor Atlas Network and serves as an executive committee member of the Center for Computational Systems Biology at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on leveraging AI and machine learning coupled with innovative experimental approaches to analyze 3D and 4D tumor ecosystems at single-cell and subcellular resolutions, integrating spatial molecular data to reveal key mechanisms of cancer progression, immune interactions and therapeutic response. This cutting-edge approach aims to enhance early detection, refine treatment strategies, advance therapeutic development and propel next-generation precision medicine.
As part of Vanderbilt’s Molecular AI Initiative, Hwang and his team are pioneering holotomography-based 3D reconstructions of tumor tissue samples, integrating AI-driven spatial molecular profiling for advanced characterization of cancer biology. This work is at the forefront of predicting disease progression and therapeutic response, ultimately informing the future of cancer treatment.
Through this workshop, VUMC continues to assert itself as a global leader in AI-driven precision oncology, fostering collaborations with leading cancer research institutions and pushing the boundaries of AI-powered cancer diagnostics and therapeutic innovations. For more information, please visit the AACR Annual Meeting Website or contact Hwang at taehyun.hwang@vumc.org.
Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy infusions benefitted from a virtual reality experience that took them on tours of the canals of Venice, Italy; the Taj Mahal in Agra, India; and the Amazon River in Ecuador.
The distraction therapy decreased their pain and stress levels by statistically significant measures, according to a study by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers published in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing. The patients also exhibited lower heart rates, reported high satisfaction with virtual reality and experienced no feelings of cybersickness.
The responses of the patients were compared with those in a control group who engaged in the typical activities of chemotherapy patients, such as watching television, reading or talking with appointment companions.
The patients in the virtual reality arm of the study had a median heart rate of 71 compared to 75 for the control group. When asked to report pain and stress levels on a 10-point scale, patients in the virtual reality arm reported a range of 0-5 for stress compared to 0-10 for those in the control group. The overall estimated difference for stress was 1.5 points, while the difference for pain was 0.7.
Heather Murray, left, and Cody Stubblefield, RN. (All photos submitted)
“The advances in virtual reality technology over the last 10 years has made it more useful than ever in providing a diversionary tool for patients experiencing pain or anxiety,” said Cody Stansel, MSN, RN, NE-BC, administrative director of nursing at Vanderbilt-Ingram, the study’s corresponding author.
The authors noted that although the effectiveness of virtual reality has been demonstrated among diverse patient populations, few studies exist evaluating it for adult cancer patients.
They also noted that improvements in virtual reality technology had rendered early research obsolete. The Vanderbilt-Ingram study evaluated 90 patients with 45 experiencing virtual reality distraction therapy and 45 in the control group. The age range was 20-82 for the patients.
The virtual reality experience lasted 12 minutes. The research team received no funding support for the study, but the headsets were loaned from Vanderbilt University. The 90 participants in the study were recruited and evaluated from November 2021 through December 2023.
Nurses can easily incorporate virtual reality as a distraction therapy because the headsets are “widely accessible, relatively affordable and simple to use,” the authors stated.
Other authors are Alexander McLeod; Shubham Gulati, MS; Catherine Ivory, PhD, NI-BC, NEA-BC; Mary Dietrich, PhD, MS; Heather Murray; Nathan Zang; Krish Shah; Hari Patel; Kristin Pegram, RN, OCN; and Wendy Howell, MSN, RN, OCN.
An ambitious project led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators aims to use artificial intelligence technologies to generate antibody therapies against any antigen target of interest.
VUMC has been awarded up to $30 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to build a massive antibody-antigen atlas, develop AI-based algorithms to engineer antigen-specific antibodies, and apply the AI technology to identify and develop potential therapeutic antibodies.
ARPA-H is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that supports transformative high-risk, high-reward research to drive biomedical and health breakthroughs to benefit everyone.
Ivelin Georgiev, PhD
“Over the last few decades, monoclonal antibodies have started playing an important therapeutic role in a wide range of disease settings, but we’re just scratching the surface. Monoclonal antibody discovery has the potential to impact a lot of different diseases where currently there are no therapeutics,” said Ivelin Georgiev, PhD, professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Computational Microbiology and Immunology, and the project principal investigator.
Traditional methods for antibody discovery are limited by inefficiency, high costs and fail rates, logistical hurdles, long turnaround times and limited scalability, Georgiev said.
“What we’re proposing to do is going to address all of these big bottlenecks with the traditional antibody discovery process and make it a more democratized process — where you can figure out what your antigen target is and have a good chance of generating a monoclonal antibody therapeutic against that target in a very effective and efficient way,” said Georgiev, who is also professor of Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Antibodies are part of our immune system. They are proteins produced by white blood cells (B cells) that bind to and inactivate antigens — targets on viruses, bacteria and even our own cells. Antibodies are effective as preventive and therapeutic treatments against viruses, cancers, autoimmune disorders and other diseases.
To identify a candidate therapeutic antibody, researchers generally screen and test thousands of antibodies against an antigen target, looking for the “needle in the haystack” that binds to and neutralizes the target. The traditional discovery process requires specific types of biological samples. For example, to find antibodies against an infectious disease pathogen, blood samples from people or animal models exposed to the pathogen are required. And then, if the pathogen mutates, a therapeutic antibody may become ineffective.
“With a computational approach, you’re no longer dependent on access to biological samples or multiple screening cycles,” Georgiev said. “You can simulate variants and generate antibodies ahead of time before the variants arise.”
Georgiev and his colleagues are engaged in three tasks as they work toward developing computational approaches for antibody discovery:
Generation of an antibody-antigen atlas of unprecedented size and variety
Development of AI-based algorithms for extracting information from the antibody-antigen atlas and engineering antigen-specific antibodies
Proof-of-concept studies to apply the AI technology to identify antibody candidates against antigen targets of biomedical interest
For the first task, the researchers are using a technology they developed called LIBRA seq (Linking B-cell Receptor to Antigen specificity through sequencing) that enables high-throughput mapping of antibody-antigen interactions for many antigens and B cells at the same time.
“For computational methods to work, we need to have a lot of data,” Georgiev said. “The scale of data that’s available for antibodies and antigens is lower than in other fields, which has been one of the limiting factors when it comes to developing AI approaches.
“If we train algorithms on the data that exists currently — much of it is for SARS-CoV-2, flu and HIV — the algorithms may be accurate for these targets, but they are less likely to be successful in extrapolating to a new target. We need to train them with a more diverse set of antigen targets, which is where LIBRA-seq comes into play.”
The investigators aim for the atlas to include hundreds of thousands — and potentially over 1 million — antibody-antigen pairs, compared to approximately 15,000 pairs currently available from published data, providing an unparalleled resource for researchers worldwide.
The team is already moving forward on the second task of building computational models, which they will improve as they populate the antibody-antigen atlas. For the third task, they will apply the AI technology to develop antibodies against cancer antigens and bacterial, viral and autoimmune targets. They will select one candidate antibody for preclinical development up to and including IND (investigational new drug) application.
“Our project will be providing a platform that can be used for a variety of different diseases, not just the specific targets we’re interested in,” Georgiev said. “Our team has spent many years trying to discover antibodies against a variety of indications, and it’s such an inefficient process with a lot of failure. If we can help change that, that’s going to be huge — not just for us, but for the entire field and for people with diseases where antibody therapies can make a difference.
“It’s going to be hard. It’s not an easy problem, but I think we have a good foundation for it, and we’ll do the best we can to make it work.”
Collaborators on the project are: Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, Sarah Croessmann, PhD, Eric Skaar, PhD, MPH, Maria Hadjifrangiskou, PhD, and Jeremy Goettel, PhD, at VUMC; Tedd Ross, PhD, and Giuseppe Sautto, PhD, at Cleveland Clinic; and Maria del Pilar Quintana Varon, PhD, and Lars Hviid, PhD, at the University of Copenhagen. The Brock Family Center for Applied Innovation, a catalyst for advancing translational research to market, has engaged with and supported the Georgiev team.
Vanderbilt University and VUMC shared resources that are critical to the project are: VANTAGE (Vanderbilt Technologies for Advanced Genomics), ACCRE (Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education), and FCSR (Flow Cytometry Shared Resource). Wheeler Bio will participate in IND-enabling studies, cell line development and manufacturing activities.
The Nashville Predators hosted a special night Feb. 27 for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, as it was the second and final Hockey Fights Cancer night of the 2024-25 season.
Each year the Nashville Predators Foundation hosts two nights to benefit pediatric cancer awareness and research efforts at Monroe Carell through the 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund presented by Twice Daily. For more than a decade, the Predators have supported Monroe Carell with more than $4 million in donations and in-kind contributions.
As part of the evening, 7-year-old Arlo, a Monroe Carell patient ambassador, and his twin brother, Luca, joined in the game experience as the Nashville Predators took on the Winnipeg Jets. Ambassadors are on the ice with the team during starting lineups, drop the puck and take part in other special game day activities. Arlo was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in December 2023 and went into remission in early 2024.
“We are tremendously grateful for the unwavering commitment of the Nashville Predators and the 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund to make a difference in the lives of pediatric cancer patients and to help advance critical cancer research that improves outcomes for children,” said Meg Rush, MD, MMHC, President of Monroe Carell. “It is a true joy and honor to see our community come together twice a year for Hockey Fights Cancer nights to celebrate our pediatric cancer patients while also raising awareness around childhood cancers and our programming that truly offers hope and healing.”
The Predators also partnered with musician and cancer survivor Harry Hudson and his charity, Hey I’m Here For You, to sell merchandise at the game. Proceeds from the sales benefited the 365 Fund as well as the Teen Cancer Lounge at Monroe Carell.
Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, founding director of the Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology and a pioneer in immune and cancer cell metabolism research, this summer will begin a new chapter in his career at the University of Chicago.
University officials announced March 3 that Rathmell has been named chair of the Ben May Department for Cancer Research and director of the Ludwig Center at the University of Chicago, effective July 1.
Rathmell currently holds the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Immunobiology and is professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
“Dr. Rathmell’s impact on immunology and cancer metabolism research at Vanderbilt has been remarkable,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“His leadership in building an immunology community, advancing translational research and mentoring the next generation of scientists has left a legacy,” said Pietenpol, who holds the Brock Family Directorship in Career Development. “While we will greatly miss his leadership at Vanderbilt, we know his impact will expand in these prestigious roles at the University of Chicago and the Ludwig Center.”
The Ludwig Center at the University of Chicago, one of six Ludwig Centers nationwide, is focused on finding ways to stop the spread of cancer.
Rathmell earned his PhD in immunology from Stanford University, did postdoctoral work in immunology and cancer biology at the University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania, and was on the faculty at Duke University before coming to Vanderbilt in 2015.
As director of the Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology, he has led growth in basic science and translational immunology at Vanderbilt, with an emphasis on the research of immune-related diseases and building an immunology community.
A co-leader of the Host-Tumor Interactions Program in the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Rathmell helped define the metabolic mechanisms that control inflammatory diseases and cancer.
He also led initiatives, as associate director of the Molecular Pathology and Immunology PhD Program and of the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation, to strengthen basic science immunology education and position Vanderbilt as a leader in immunology research.
Rathmell said he is looking forward to working in collaboration with the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center to advance understanding of the tumor microenvironment and the role that immunity plays in cancer growth and response to therapy.
