Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research

Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research

The mission of the UCSF Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research is to understand the fundamental biology underlying aggressive prostate cancer and develop strategies that will lead to a cure for metastatic disease.

The Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research, launched in 2019 with a generous philanthropic gift, recognizes that prostate cancer represents a heterogeneous disease. The Initiative seeks to transform prostate cancer treatment, from a “one-size-fits-all” approach, to a  strategy where therapies are informed by the molecular mechanisms that govern a patient’s individual cancer. With this in mind, the Initiative has proposed an ambitious set of goals:

  1. Identify new molecular drivers of aggressive prostate cancer
  2. Understand how these molecular drivers lead to specific cancer features
  3. Develop new therapeutic approaches to metastatic prostate cancer

UCSF Cancer

 

Our Research Priorities

Cancer constantly evolves in response to medical therapies, the patient’s immune system, their diet, and the environment of the organs to which the cancer metastasizes. This is why single-targeted therapies may not eradicate prostate cancer. This highlights the critical need to understand the fundamental biology underlying prostate cancer progression, in order to radically improve outcomes. The BIPCR looks to fund high-risk projects, multi-disciplinary teams, and core resources that aim to accelerate research in prostate cancer.

To accomplish this the BIPCR:

  1. Builds upon our scientific successes and expands High Reward Projects.
  2. Funds multi-disciplinary teams to support trainees and individual lab research programs. 
  3. Provides funding for the generation of resources for UCSF prostate cancer researchers, including but not limited to drug discovery, genomics, pathology, and AI research projects.
  4. Seeks to partner with departments on the recruitment of basic scientists to UCSF, working in part or fully on prostate cancer.
  5. Provides pilot funding to groups interested in applying their current practices to the field of prostate cancer. (Contact [email protected] if you have questions about pilot funding.)
  6. Since 2020 alone, BIPCR investigators have 530+ publications leading to >13,000 citations, including 5 Cell papers and 5 Nature papers. BIPCR funding itself has been used to generate preliminary data leading to an additional $41 million in prestigious grants, the majority from the NIH including a Prostate Cancer SPORE award in 2024. These awards include dedicated funding for trainees transitioning to become independent prostate cancer. 

 

Executive Committee

UCSF Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research

Felix Y. Feng, MD
Founding Director
In Memoriam

Team

Program Manager – Nicholas Larocque

Tissue Specialist – Rosalie Nolley

Administrative Officer – Sarah Aguilar

 

The Feng Symposium

In 2024, Dr. Feng and other prominent cancer researchers, established The Feng Symposium to bring together a diverse group of cancer researchers to provide a single forum for a discussion of novel, state-of-the-art therapeutic approaches to prostate cancer.

This annual symposium is organized by a rotating committee of experts in the field with administrative support from the BIPCR. Dr. Feng’s impact on the oncology community is profound. Through this symposium the BIPCR is committed to giving researchers from bench science, translational and clinical disciplines an opportunity to bond and form scientific connections across the spectrum of prostate cancer research.

 

Featured Publications

Chesner LN, Polesso F, Graff JN, Hawley JE, Smith AK, Lundberg A, Das R, Shenoy T, Sjöström M, Zhao F, Hu YM, Linder S, Chen WS, Hawkins RM, Shrestha R, Zhu X, Foye A, Li H, Kim LM, Bhalla M, O'loughlin T, Kuzuoglu-Ozturk D, Hua JT, Badura ML, Wilkinson S, Trostel SY, Bergman AM, Ruggero D, Drake CG, Sowalsky AG, Fong L, Cooperberg MR, Zwart W, Guan X, Ashworth A, Xia Z, Quigley DA, Gilbert LA, Feng FY, Moran AE. Androgen Receptor Inhibition Increases MHC Class I Expression and Improves Immune Response in Prostate Cancer. Cancer Discov. 2025 Mar 3;15(3):481-494. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-24-0559. PMID: 39652470; PMCID: PMC11873725.

Zhao SG, Bootsma M, Zhou S, Shrestha R, Moreno-Rodriguez T, Lundberg A, Pan C, Arlidge C, Hawley JR, Foye A, Weinstein AS, Sjöström M, Zhang M, Li H, Chesner LN, Rydzewski NR, Helzer KT, Shi Y; West Coast Dream Team Consortium; Lynch M, Dehm SM, Lang JM, Alumkal JJ, He HH, Wyatt AW, Aggarwal R, Zwart W, Small EJ, Quigley DA, Lupien M, Feng FY. Integrated analyses highlight interactions between the three-dimensional genome and DNA, RNA and epigenomic alterations in metastatic prostate cancer. Nat Genet. 2024 Aug;56(8):1689-1700. doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01826-3. Epub 2024 Jul 17. PMID: 39020220; PMCID: PMC11319208.

Zhang M, Sjöström M, Cui X, Foye A, Farh K, Shrestha R, Lundberg A, Dang HX, Li H, Febbo PG, Aggarwal R, Alumkal JJ, Small EJ; SU2C/PCF West Coast Prostate Cancer Dream Team; Maher CA, Feng FY, Quigley DA. Integrative analysis of ultra-deep RNA-seq reveals alternative promoter usage as a mechanism of activating oncogenic programmes during prostate cancer progression. Nat Cell Biol. 2024 Jul;26(7):1176-1186. doi: 10.1038/s41556-024-01438-3. Epub 2024 Jun 13. PMID: 38871824; PMCID: PMC11844022.

Chou J, Egusa EA, Wang S, Badura ML, Lee F, Bidkar AP, Zhu J, Shenoy T, Trepka K, Robinson TM, Steri V, Huang J, Wang Y, Small EJ, Chan E, Stohr BA, Ashworth A, Delafontaine B, Rottey S, Cooke KS, Hashemi Sadraei N, Yu B, Salvati M, Bailis JM, Feng FY, Flavell RR, Aggarwal R. Immunotherapeutic Targeting and PET Imaging of DLL3 in Small-Cell Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer. Cancer Res. 2023 Jan 18;83(2):301-315. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-22-1433. PMID: 36351060; PMCID: PMC10263373.

Sjöström M, Zhao SG, Levy S, Zhang M, Ning Y, Shrestha R, Lundberg A, Herberts C, Foye A, Aggarwal R, Hua JT, Li H, Bergamaschi A, Maurice-Dror C, Maheshwari A, Chen S, Ng SWS, Ye W, Petricca J, Fraser M, Chesner L, Perry MD, Moreno-Rodriguez T, Chen WS, Alumkal JJ, Chou J, Morgans AK, Beer TM, Thomas GV, Gleave M, Lloyd P, Phillips T, McCarthy E, Haffner MC, Zoubeidi A, Annala M, Reiter RE, Rettig MB, Witte ON, Fong L, Bose R, Huang FW, Luo J, Bjartell A, Lang JM, Mahajan NP, Lara PN, Evans CP, Tran PT, Posadas EM, He C, Cui XL, Huang J, Zwart W, Gilbert LA, Maher CA, Boutros PC, Chi KN, Ashworth A, Small EJ, He HH, Wyatt AW, Quigley DA, Feng FY. The 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Landscape of Prostate Cancer. Cancer Res. 2022 Nov 2;82(21):3888-3902. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-22-1123. PMID: 36251389; PMCID: PMC9627125.

Song H, Weinstein HNW, Allegakoen P, Wadsworth MH 2nd, Xie J, Yang H, Castro EA, Lu KL, Stohr BA, Feng FY, Carroll PR, Wang B, Cooperberg MR, Shalek AK, Huang FW. Single-cell analysis of human primary prostate cancer reveals the heterogeneity of tumor-associated epithelial cell states. Nat Commun. 2022 Jan 10;13(1):141. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-27322-4. PMID: 35013146; PMCID: PMC8748675.

Melnyk JE, Steri V, Nguyen HG, Hwang YC, Gordan JD, Hann B, Feng FY, Shokat KM. Targeting a splicing-mediated drug resistance mechanism in prostate cancer by inhibiting transcriptional regulation by PKCβ1. Oncogene. 2022 Jan 27. doi: 10.1038/s41388-022-02179-z. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35087237.

Aggarwal R, Rydzewski NR, Zhang L, Foye A, Kim W, Helzer KT, Bakhtiar H, Chang SL, Perry MD, Gleave M, Reiter RE, Huang J, Evans CP, Alumkal JJ, Lang JM, Yu M, Quigley DA, Sjöström M, Small EJ, Feng FY, Zhao SG. Prognosis Associated With Luminal and Basal Subtypes of Metastatic Prostate Cancer. JAMA Oncol. 2021 Nov 1;7(11):1644-1652. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.3987. PMID: 34554200; PMCID: PMC8461554.

Rydzewski NR, Peterson E, Lang JM, Yu M, Laura Chang S, Sjöström M, Bakhtiar H, Song G, Helzer KT, Bootsma ML, Chen WS, Shrestha RM, Zhang M, Quigley DA, Aggarwal R, Small EJ, Wahl DR, Feng FY, Zhao SG. Predicting cancer drug TARGETS - TreAtment Response Generalized Elastic-neT Signatures. NPJ genomic medicine. 2021 Sep 21;6(1):76. doi: 10.1038/s41525-021-00239-z.

Das R, Sjöström M, Shrestha R, Yogodzinski C, Egusa EA, Chesner LN, Chen WS, Chou J, Dang DK, Swinderman JT, Ge A, Hua JT, Kabir S, Quigley DA, Small EJ, Ashworth A, Feng FY, Gilbert LA. An integrated functional and clinical genomics approach reveals genes driving aggressive metastatic prostate cancer. Nat Commun. 2021 Jul 29;12(1):4601. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24919-7. PMID: 34326322; PMCID: PMC8322386.

Ryan MJ, Bose R. Genomic Alteration Burden in Advanced Prostate Cancer and Therapeutic Implications. Front Oncol. 2019;9:1287. Published 2019 Nov 22. doi:10.3389/fonc.2019.01287

Zhao SG, Chen WS, Li H, Foye A, Zhang M, Sjöström M, Aggarwal R, Playdle D, Liao A, Alumkal JJ, Das R, Chou J, Hua JT, Barnard TJ, Bailey AM, Chow ED, Perry MD, Dang HX, Yang R, Moussavi-Baygi R, Zhang L, Alshalalfa M, Laura Chang S, Houlahan KE, Shiah YJ, Beer TM, Thomas G, Chi KN, Gleave M, Zoubeidi A, Reiter RE, Rettig MB, Witte O, Yvonne Kim M, Fong L, Spratt DE, Morgan TM, Bose R, Huang FW, Li H, Chesner L, Shenoy T, Goodarzi H, Asangani IA, Sandhu S, Lang JM, Mahajan NP, Lara PN, Evans CP, Febbo P, Batzoglou S, Knudsen KE, He HH, Huang J, Zwart W, Costello JF, Luo J, Tomlins SA, Wyatt AW, Dehm SM, Ashworth A, Gilbert LA, Boutros PC, Farh K, Chinnaiyan AM, Maher CA, Small EJ, Quigley DA, Feng FY. The DNA methylation landscape of advanced prostate cancer. Nat Genet. 2020 Aug;52(8):778-789. doi: 10.1038/s41588-020-0648-8. Epub 2020 Jul 13. PMID: 32661416; PMCID: PMC7454228.

Zhou, X., Han, S., Wilder-Romans, K., Sun, G. Y., Zhu, H., Liu, X., Tan, M., Wang, G., Feng, F. Y., & Sun, Y. (2020). Neddylation inactivation represses androgen receptor transcription and inhibits growth, survival and invasion of prostate cancer cells. Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.), 22(4), 192–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neo.2020.02.002

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