{"id":37278,"date":"2026-01-23T14:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/?post_type=cri_news&#038;p=37278"},"modified":"2026-01-23T14:42:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:42:38","slug":"israel-cancer-research-fund","status":"publish","type":"cri_news","link":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund","title":{"rendered":"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><strong>Research led by Asaf Madi, PhD, of Tel Aviv University could make TIL therapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced disease<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NEW YORK,&nbsp;NY \u2013 Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) have partnered on a new award, the&nbsp;<strong>ICRF-CRI Immunotherapy Collaborative Project Grant<\/strong>, given to Dr. Asaf Madi, PhD, of Tel Aviv University. Dr. Madi was awarded $180,000 over a three-year period to support his research on refining tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy to predict response and overcome drug resistance in melanoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are honored to once again partner with CRI, a world-class immunotherapy research organization, on this cutting-edge project,\u201d said Alan Herman, ICRF\u2019s Executive Director. \u201cThere is a clear, unmet need for personalized treatments like TIL therapy, and Dr. Madi\u2019s research into adoptive cell transfer could offer new hope to melanoma patients in urgent need of better options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) using TILs is a promising personalized immunotherapy for melanoma, shown to improve survival in advanced cases. However, many patients do not respond, and others develop resistance, limiting the long-term effectiveness of this approach. Dr. Madi\u2019s research aims to address these challenges by identifying predictive biomarkers, uncovering mechanisms of tumor resistance, and optimizing TIL selection and expansion to improve therapeutic outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Madi and his team are studying the gene circuits that program immune cells, controlling their differentiation, activation, and regulation. By examining how T cells behave in tumors, particularly following immunotherapy, they aim to determine why some T cells sustain anti-tumor activity while others become exhausted or suppressed. Insights from this work will guide the selection and engineering of more potent TIL populations capable of durable tumor targeting and generating long-term immune memory, reducing the risk of cancer recurrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis collaboration reflects what progress in immunotherapy really looks like\u2014bringing together partners, data, and discovery to tackle resistance head-on,\u201d said Alicia Zhou, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of CRI. \u201cBy understanding why some immune cells persist while others fail, Dr. Madi\u2019s work moves us closer to making personalized cell therapies like TILs more reliable, more durable, and more transformative for patients with melanoma.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. In the U.S. alone, over 100,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and advanced melanoma can be resistant to standard treatments. Because it can spread quickly and evade therapies, developing new, effective treatments is critical to improve survival and offer hope to patients and their families worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Asaf Madi earned his Ph.D. in computational immunology at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science, studying B cell and T cell repertoires. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute, focusing on T-cell differentiation and cancer immunology. Dr. Madi then returned to Tel Aviv University, where he is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, leading a team that drives the development of novel anti-cancer therapies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research led by Asaf Madi, PhD, of Tel Aviv University could make TIL therapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced disease NEW YORK,&nbsp;NY \u2013 Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35025,"template":"","tags":[],"resource_cancer_types":[],"resource_patient_age":[],"resource_cancer_stage":[],"resource_treatment_type":[],"resource_treatment_status":[],"class_list":["post-37278","cri_news","type-cri_news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma - Cancer Research Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New CRI\u2013ICRF\u2013funded research by Asaf Madi, PhD, seeks to make TIL immunotherapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced melanoma.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma - Cancer Research Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New CRI\u2013ICRF\u2013funded research by Asaf Madi, PhD, seeks to make TIL immunotherapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced melanoma.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cancer Research Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-23T19:42:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1050\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"587\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund\",\"name\":\"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma - Cancer Research Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-23T19:15:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-23T19:42:38+00:00\",\"description\":\"New CRI\u2013ICRF\u2013funded research by Asaf Madi, PhD, seeks to make TIL immunotherapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced melanoma.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg\",\"width\":1050,\"height\":587},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Media Room Article\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/\",\"name\":\"Cancer Research Institute\",\"description\":\"For a World Immune to Cancer\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Cancer Research Institute\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/logo-gradient.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/logo-gradient.svg\",\"width\":156,\"height\":53,\"caption\":\"Cancer Research Institute\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma - Cancer Research Institute","description":"New CRI\u2013ICRF\u2013funded research by Asaf Madi, PhD, seeks to make TIL immunotherapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced melanoma.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma - Cancer Research Institute","og_description":"New CRI\u2013ICRF\u2013funded research by Asaf Madi, PhD, seeks to make TIL immunotherapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced melanoma.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund","og_site_name":"Cancer Research Institute","article_modified_time":"2026-01-23T19:42:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1050,"height":587,"url":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Tiempo de lectura":"3 minutos"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund","url":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund","name":"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma - Cancer Research Institute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-23T19:15:07+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-23T19:42:38+00:00","description":"New CRI\u2013ICRF\u2013funded research by Asaf Madi, PhD, seeks to make TIL immunotherapy more reliable and durable for patients with advanced melanoma.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CRI_Logo_Primary_RGB_P1.jpg","width":1050,"height":587},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room\/israel-cancer-research-fund#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Media Room Article","item":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/media-room"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Institute Announce Co-Funding of Grant to Address Immunotherapy Resistance in Melanoma"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/","name":"Cancer Research Institute","description":"For a World Immune to Cancer","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#organization","name":"Cancer Research Institute","url":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/logo-gradient.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/logo-gradient.svg","width":156,"height":53,"caption":"Cancer Research Institute"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cri_news\/37278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cri_news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cri_news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37278"},{"taxonomy":"resource_cancer_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_cancer_types?post=37278"},{"taxonomy":"resource_patient_age","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_patient_age?post=37278"},{"taxonomy":"resource_cancer_stage","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_cancer_stage?post=37278"},{"taxonomy":"resource_treatment_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_treatment_type?post=37278"},{"taxonomy":"resource_treatment_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_treatment_status?post=37278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}