Writing
“The stories in [Biology for a Changing World] were the main incentives for my selection of the text.”
—Leslie Winemiller, Texas A&M University
“Extremely engaging! I was enthralled reading it.”
—Jamie Jensen, Brigham Young University
Out of the Closet, into the Lab: Five LGBTQ Scientists Share Their Stories
June 21, 2018 | What’s it like being LGBTQ in the world of science? We asked some MSK scientists to find out.
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Don’t Scratch That Mole? Scientists Are Learning More about Inflammation and Cancer
June 26, 2018| It’s not only what’s inside your cells that determines your cancer risk. It’s what surrounds them too.
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What Is Epigenetics, and Why Is Everyone Talking about It?
June 19, 2018| Epigenetics is frequently in the news, but there’s lots of confusion about just what it entails.
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Cancer Cells Eat Fat to Grow and Spread
June 14, 2018| Research conducted in zebrafish shows that melanoma cells have an affinity for fat, and that eating it makes them more aggressive.
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How the Zebrafish Got Its Stripes
May 24, 2018| A surprising discovery linking the hormone insulin to skin pigmentation offers fresh insights into how animal bodies take shape.
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How a Chicken Helped Solve the Mystery of Cancer
December 27, 2017| When this feathered patient found her way into a New York laboratory in 1909, she changed the course of cancer science.
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Sandor Rado, American Psychoanalysis, and the Question of Bisexuality
June 5, 2017 | Sigmund Freud believed that everyone was bisexual. Sandor Rado disagreed and overturned this fundamental psychoanalytic concept. Who was right?
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A ‘Quick and Easy’ Recipe for Growing Brain Cells
January 24, 2017 | Using stem cells, scientists can create batches of cortical neurons to study schizophrenia and autism.
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The Skinny on Fat and Cancer Risk
January 4, 2017 | Scientists are learning how obesity — having too much body fat — increases your chance of developing cancer.
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T Is for T Cell: The Science Behind Immunotherapy
December 28, 2016 | By deciphering the biology of T cells, MSK scientists gave immunotherapy a boost.
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Targeting DNA Repair in Cancer: PARP Inhibitors and Beyond
December 9, 2016 | Scientists are looking to exploit defects in DNA repair as an Achilles’ heel in cancer.
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No Sugar, No Cancer? A Look at the Evidence
December 1, 2016 | A lot has been written about the relationship between sugar and cancer. Most of it is wrong.
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After Years of Neglect, Cancer Biologists Return to a Forgotten Field: Metabolism
November 23, 2016 | Scientists are dusting off their biochemistry textbooks in the hunt for clues to cancer.
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Resistance Is Future: Targeted Treatment Makes Stubborn Cancers Responsive to Immunotherapy
November 9, 2016 | New research on an experimental drug provides hope for better responses to immunotherapy.
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Do Cancer Vaccines Have a Shot at Success?
October 19, 2016 | After a string of failures, therapeutic cancer vaccines have acquired something of a bad rap.
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Hot Times in “Radium Hospital”: The History of Radiation Therapy at MSK
September 22, 2016 | Learn why MSK was once nicknamed “Radium Hospital” and what it meant for cancer treatment.
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Radiation as Weapon and Cancer Cure: MSK Doctor Unearths Surprising History
September 7, 2016 | An effort to develop a radiation test after 9/11 inspires a trip through medical history.
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Can Women with Early-Stage Breast Cancer Safely Avoid Chemotherapy?
August 25, 2016 | A new study suggests that many women with early-stage breast cancer receiving chemotherapy to prevent recurrence do not need it. Here, we look at the evidence.
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#ASCO16 Highlights: Treating Cancer in the Elderly Patient, a Visit from VP Biden, and More
Jun 7, 2016 | In case you missed it, here’s a recap of Monday’s highlights from the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.
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#ASCO Highlights: A “Smart-Bomb” for Lung Cancer, Bladder Cancer Advances, and More
June 6, 2016 | Couldn’t be at ASCO this year? Read highlights from the first half of the meeting.
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Combination Immunotherapy Shows New Promise for Lung Cancer
June 1, 2016 | Results to be presented at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting suggest combination immunotherapy may help more people with the most common form of lung cancer.
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Between the Moon and New York City: VP Biden Leads MSK Moonshot Roundtable
May 27, 2016 | Find out what Vice President Joe Biden had to say when he visited MSK for a roundtable “cancer moonshot” discussion.
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Stealth Mode: How Metastatic Cancer Cells Evade Detection by the Immune System
March 24, 2016 | Cancer cells have a sneaky ability to hide out in the body for years at a time. MSK scientists are looking for ways to flush them out.
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License to Build: New Theory of Cancer Puts Metabolism at Center
January 12, 2016 | Researchers are rethinking the relationship between metabolism and cancer, and finding insights in some unexpected places. Your beer glass, for example.
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A Netflix-Inspired Approach to Understanding Biology and Medicine
December 18, 2015 | Computers currently help us choose our favorite movies, books, and TV shows. Will personalized medicines be next?
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What Is an Oncogene? Immunologists Rethink a Fundamental Cancer Concept
October 25, 2015 | Immunology is reshaping how oncologists think about cancer, and even basic principles—like oncogenes—are getting a significant makeover.
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What Ever Happened to Coley’s Toxins?
April 2, 2015 | Experts today agree that a 100-year-old therapy cured cancer in some cases. Why did it fall out of use?
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Beyond Magic Bullets: Helen Coley Nauts and the Battle for Immunotherapy
April 1, 2015 | How one woman who lacked a college degree took on the cancer establishment and changed the course of medicine.
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Why Is Circumcision So Popular in America?
January 4, 2015 | In the wake of new CDC guidelines, a look at how circumcision became the most common surgical procedure in the United States.
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Found: A Molecular Needle in the Cancer Haystack
November 27, 2014 | New research by CRI scientists shows how genomic methods can identify the precise antigens underlying an effective response to immunotherapy.
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November 14, 2014 | Was the father of immunotherapy also the father of the modern lab mouse?
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The Arrival of Personalized Immunotherapy?
October 10, 2014 | A new paper from a CRI scientist makes a strong case for the value of truly individualized immunotherapies.
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August 8, 2014 | Before AIDS was recognized as an immune disorder, it was seen as a cancer. Find out what that meant for the epidemic.
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June 2014 | Stories of courage and survival from cancer patients treated with immunotherapy, featured on TheAnswerToCancer.org.
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Coley to Cure: The Story of the Cancer Research Institute
June 2014 | Based on extensive interviews with leading scientists, this in-depth and beautifully illustrated retrospective traces the history of cancer immunotherapy from Coley’s toxins to current checkpoint blockade therapy.
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Parallel Circuits: Neurobiologists rethink the nature of sex differences in the brain
May 2014 | Research by Harvard biologist Catherine Dulac and others is challenging some long-cherished beliefs about sexual difference.
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March 2014 | A unique approach to teaching nonmajors, this 30-chapter book uses stories of science and scientists to teach basic concepts in biology.
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The Peanut Butter Project: A doctor’s crusade to end malnutrition in Africa, a spoonful at a time
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Death in Bogalusa: From tragic deaths in a Southern town, insight into heart disease
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March 10, 2014 | A historical look at our changing understanding of the role of microbes in cancer.
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Smoke Screens: Searching for the Causes of Lung Cancer
January 31, 2014 | On the 50th anniversary of the Surgeon General’s report, a look back at the science and politics of tobacco.
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December 13, 2013 | A look at the woman who inspired the first war on cancer.
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The Cancer Research Institute 2013 Annual Symposium: Dynamics of Host–Tumor Interaction. Cancer Immunol Res. 2014; 2(2):105–11.
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Milestones in Cancer Immunology: The 2013 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. Cancer Immunol Res. 2013; 1(6):362-64
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My article, “The Scopes Trial Revisited: Social Darwinism versus Social Gospel,” was published in Science as Culture in 2008.
Matthew Tontonoz 