{"id":35713,"date":"2025-07-16T02:35:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T06:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/?post_type=cri_scientists&#038;p=35713"},"modified":"2025-07-23T12:49:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:49:30","slug":"mark-chong-phd","status":"publish","type":"cri_scientists","link":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd","title":{"rendered":"Mark Chong, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of cancer immunotherapy\u2019s toughest balancing acts is how to unleash the immune system against tumors without tipping it into overdrive or making it go off target. At the center of this challenge are regulatory T cells, or Tregs, which are specialized immune cells that keep inflammation and autoimmunity in check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Mark Chong has discovered that tiny molecules inside Tregs called microRNAs help control how Tregs behave in cancer and that inhibiting them could let the immune system attack tumors more effectively. Stopping these microRNAs has been difficult though because current drugs are unable to get inside Tregs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this project, Dr. Chong\u2019s team will employ the same technology used in some COVID-19 vaccines \u2013 called RNA-lipid nanoparticles (RNA-LNPs) \u2013 to develop a new class of drugs that target microRNAs. LNPs are very small, fat-based bubbles that can safely deliver microRNA inhibitors directly into Tregs. This new approach could lead to a powerful new cancer immunotherapy that can work alongside existing treatments to make them more effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research Focus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Inflammation, regulatory T cells, microRNAs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Projects and Grants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cell-targeting RNA-LNPs delivering microRNA inhibitors as a novel immunotherapy for cancer<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of cancer immunotherapy\u2019s toughest balancing acts is how to unleash the immune system against tumors without tipping it into overdrive or making it go off target. At the center of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35671,"template":"","tax_cancer_type":[455],"tax_grant_type":[481],"tax_award_year":[742],"tax_institutions":[734],"tax_location_states":[503],"class_list":["post-35713","cri_scientists","type-cri_scientists","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"scientist_subhead":"CRI Longhill Charitable Foundation Technology Impact Award Investigator","quote":"","scientist_last_name":"Chong","show_on_landing":true,"scientist_publish_until":"20280715"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mark Chong, PhD - Cancer Research Institute<\/title>\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\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Chong, PhD - Cancer Research Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of cancer immunotherapy\u2019s toughest balancing acts is how to unleash the immune system against tumors without tipping it into overdrive or making it go off target. At the center of this [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cancer Research Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-23T16:49:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/mark-chong-800x800-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\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=\"2 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd\",\"name\":\"Mark Chong, PhD - Cancer Research Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/mark-chong-800x800-1.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-16T06:35:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-23T16:49:30+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/mark-chong-800x800-1.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/mark-chong-800x800-1.webp\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Chong\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mark Chong, PhD\"}]},{\"@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":"Mark Chong, PhD - Cancer Research Institute","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\/cri-funded-scientists\/mark-chong-phd","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mark Chong, PhD - Cancer Research Institute","og_description":"One of cancer immunotherapy\u2019s toughest balancing acts is how to unleash the immune system against tumors without tipping it into overdrive or making it go off target. 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