The Weill Cancer Hub West is a partnership between two world-class institutions, the Stanford Cancer Institute and the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center -– an innovative collaboration among some of the nation’s most talented scientists that will transform cancer research and care in the next decade.
About the initiative
Over the next 10 years, a leadership team comprising top clinician-scientists from both institutions and external experts will:
- Launch multiple large-scale, collaborative, and exceptionally innovative teams
- Curate research projects to ensure only the most impactful are pursued
- Evaluate progress along the way to ensure flexibility
- Strategize on clinical trial opportunities
- Adapt rapidly to new scientific approaches and opportunities
- Drive big team science, drawing together unique collaborations across disciplines
Funding
The new hub is supported by a visionary $100 million matching grant from Joan and Sanford I. Weill via the Weill Family Foundation. The two partner institutions have committed to raising $50 million apiece in matching gifts, bringing the total support to $200 million over 10 years. The initiative launched in 2025 with more than $25 million in philanthropy already in place toward the matching goal.
Projects
The initial four multidisciplinary projects:
Project FEAST
Project FEAST will connect researchers at both institutions who are advancing a new field of precision nutrition to study how diet works at the molecular level to influence the development, progression, and treatment of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Findings from Project FEAST will help develop new clinical trials and offer new treatments for pancreatic and other obesity-associated cancers. This work will provide a robust scientific foundation for understanding and implementing diet and drug interventions to better combat cancer.
Co-PIs:
- Rushika Perera, PhD – UCSF
- Jonathan Long, PhD – Stanford
Project FEAST Weill Cancer Hub West
WITHIN 10 YEARS, we can optimize diet and drug interventions to reduce cancer initiation, progression, and metastasis.
Preliminary findings suggest that users of newly available GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic and Mounjaro show reduced rates of cancer, and scientists suspect this benefit is due to more than just the effects of weight loss.
How exactly do these drugs positively influence cancer prevalence? This question remains unanswered, in part, because of the relationship between weight, diet, and disease – a long-standing unknown in cancer research and care. It is clear that some of the most lethal cancers are diagnosed at higher rates in obese patients and that diet plays a role. Yet we still know next to nothing about leveraging nutrition and weight-loss drugs to prevent cancer, slow its growth, and enhance anticancer therapies.
Jonathan Long, PhD, (Stanford) and Rushika Perera, PhD, (UCSF) will advance the field of precision nutrition to fill these gaps, investigating at the molecular level how diet influences the development, progression, and treatment of pancreatic cancer – one of the deadliest forms of the disease. They will learn why obesity increases the risk of developing cancer, how GLP-1 agonist weight-loss interventions reduce this risk, and what cancer patients should eat to increase the effectiveness of their treatments.
Findings from Project FEAST will help develop new clinical trials and offer new treatments for pancreatic and other obesity-associated cancers. This work will provide a robust scientific foundation for understanding and implementing diet and drug interventions to better combat cancer.
Project Team
UCSF
- Rushika Perera, PhD (Co-PI)
- Sagar Bapat, MD, PhD
- Roarke Kamber, PhD
- Suneil Koliwad, MD, PhD
- Davide Ruggero, PhD
- Valerie Weaver, PhD
Stanford
- Jonathan Long, PhD (Co-PI)
- Laura Attardi, PhD
- Edgar Engleman, MD
- Tracey McLaughlin, MD
- Michael Snyder, PhD
- Katrin Svensson, PhD
Project IMPACT-AI
Project IMPACT-AI will use data sets from Stanford and UCSF to find ways to personalize cancer treatment. The team is developing computational tools to track the precise evolution of each patient’s disease and connect them to the most effective care. Project IMPACT-AI seeks to revolutionize personalized cancer treatment by developing an advanced AI foundation model that integrates vast amounts of clinical oncology and cancer biology data.
Co-PIs:
- Julian Hong, MD – UCSF
- Sylvia Plevritis, PhD – Stanford
Project IMPACT Weill Cancer Hub West
WITHIN 10 YEARS, we can engineer programmable T cells to destroy the most treatment-resistant tumors.
Standardized treatment plans for cancer are designed to target general features of disease. But this one-size-fits-many approach does not account for the variation in biology and experience that make every patient’s illness different.
Sylvia Plevritis, PhD, (Stanford) and Julian Hong, MD, (UCSF) are creating computational tools to track the precise evolution of each patient’s disease and connect them to the best possible care. Their team seeks to revolutionize personalized cancer treatment by developing an advanced AI foundation model that integrates vast amounts of clinical oncology and cancer biology data. The Project IMPACT-AI tools will handle levels of information beyond the capabilities of any current AI model, combining electronic medical records with pathology, radiology, and molecular profiling data. This foundation model will then be fine-tuned to create task-specific models for clinical trials, therapy selection, and early detection of treatment inefficacy.
By bridging the gap between clinical care and biological processes, this project will deepen our understanding of cancer evolution, enhance the ability of physicians to treat patients, and pinpoint more effective therapies earlier in the treatment process. Project IMPACT-AI is building AI tools to create optimal treatment plans unique to each individual patient.
Project Team
UCSF
- Julian Hong, MD, (Co-PI)
- Jean Feng, PhD
- John Gordan, MD, PhD
- Franklin Huang, MD, PhD
- Katie Kelley, MD
- Michael Li, MD, MPH
- Anobel Odisho, MD
- Madhumita Sushil, PhD
- Adam Yala, PhD
- Travis Zack, MD, PhD
Stanford
- Sylvia Plevritis, PhD (Co-PI)
- Emily Alsentzer, PhD
- Akshay Chaudhari, PhD
- Steven Corsello, MD
- Renu Dhanasekaran, MD
- Jason Fries, PhD
- Lipika Goyal, MD
- Jeanne Shen, MD
Project PROMISE
Project PROMISE will address the 90% of cancers that are solid tumors, which are notorious for evading immune therapies. Researchers at both Stanford and UCSF are creating cellular therapies that can overcome those obstacles. Over the next decade, they aim to use AI to analyze millions of immune cells from patients who have received cellular therapies to identify changes that make these therapies more effective – and then use that knowledge to produce immune cells that can destroy solid tumors anywhere in the body.
Co-PIs:
- Kole Roybal, PhD – UCSF
- Crystal Mackall, MD – Stanford
Project PROMISE Weill Cancer Hub West
WITHIN 10 YEARS, we can build artificial intelligence systems to integrate clinical and biological data for precise, personalized cancer treatments.
Solid tumors account for over 90% of all cancers, and despite innovations in treatment, many remain incurable, especially at advanced stages.
That’s because these tumors are highly complex. They are made up of diverse cell types and mutations that surround themselves with drug-resistant barriers and immunosuppressive environments. To destroy them, a therapy must maneuver on multiple fronts, operating with an advanced level of intelligence and specificity to overcome obstacles and reach diverse targets.
Crystal Mackal, MD, (Stanford) and Kole Roybal, PhD, (UCSF) are creating cellular therapies to do exactly that, leveraging artificial intelligence and cellular engineering to safely and precisely eliminate cancer. Project PROMISE tailors cell therapy to the sophisticated variation inherent in solid tumors.
Their team will analyze millions of T cells from vast data derived from cellular therapy patients to identify modifications that boost therapeutic potential. With this refined information, Project PROMISE will transform T cells into integrated circuits capable of detecting and pursuing multiple targets.
Project Team UCSF
- Kole Roybal, PhD (Co-PI)
- Greg Allen, MD, PhD
- Julia Carnevale, MD
- Averil Ma, MD
- Alex Marson, MD, PhD
- Brian Shy, MD, PhD
- Matt Spitzer, PhD
- Jimmie Ye, PhD
Stanford
- Crystal Mackall, MD (Co-PI)
- Ash Alizadeh, MD, PhD
- Steve Feldman, PhD
- Olivier Gevaert, PhD
- Zinaida Good, PhD
- David Miklos, MD, PhD
- Garry Nolan, PhD
- Stanley Qi, PhD
- Sneha Ramakrishna, MD
- Theodore Roth, MD, PhD
- Bita Sahaf, PhD
Project VITAL
Project VITAL links Stanford and UCSF researchers with Nobel-prize winning techniques to develop the next generation of immune cells that can be generated inside the patient’s body, creating a flexible and personalized therapy. They are developing a CRISPR-based method to engineer immune cells within the body itself. Their approach introduces a genetic-engineering element directly into the blood, bypassing onerous lab manufacturing and patient preconditioning. Project VITAL is developing a treatment that would not only be more affordable and effective but also potentially suitable for a wider range of cancers and other diseases.
Co-PIs:
- Justin Eyquem, PhD – UCSF
- Michael Fischbach, PhD – Stanford
Project VITAL Weill Cancer Hub West
WITHIN 10 YEARS, we can radically increase the availability and success of cellular therapy by engineering immune cells inside the body.
Cellular therapy has brightened the prognosis for blood cancers, proving successful at slowing or curing otherwise untreatable diseases.
Despite this achievement, clinical impact has been limited. Cellular therapy is expensive, complicated to manufacture in the lab, and limited to patients healthy enough to withstand the necessary preconditioning with chemotherapy. Even with access, patients experience treatment failure 15% to 50% of the time because the therapeutic cells may not function well enough or last long enough to destroy the cancer they are designed to target.
Now, Michael Fischbach, PhD, (Stanford) and Justin Eyquem, PhD, (UCSF) and their team are creating a new generation of cellular therapies. Project VITAL is developing a treatment that would not only be more affordable and effective but also potentially suitable for a wider range of cancers and other diseases.
In close partnership with Nobel Prize laureate Jennifer Doudna, PhD, they are developing a CRISPR-based method to engineer immune cells within the body itself. Their approach introduces a genetic-engineering element directly into the blood, bypassing onerous lab manufacturing and patient preconditioning. This method creates a flexible, persistent population of cancer-destroying T cells that expands and contracts in a dynamic relationship with each patient’s individual disease. With demonstrated success in mouse models, the team expects clinical trials to begin in humans within three years.
Project Team
UCSF
- Justin Eyquem, PhD (Co-PI)
- Julia Carnevale, MD
- Jennifer Doudna, PhD
- Shanshan Lang, PhD
Stanford
- Michael Fischbach, PhD (Co-PI)
- Chris Garcia, PhD
- Crystal Mackall, MD
- Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD
Contact
To learn more contact: Ben Rubin, PhD Executive Director, Weill Cancer Hub West