On Nov. 6, 2024, a trio of new studies with funding from Cancer Grand Challenges revealed the unfair advantage this extrachromosomal DNA, or ecDNA, grants tumors. Physician-scientist Howard Y. Chang, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, co-led two of the studies along with Paul Mischele, a fellow Stanford University colleague who served as a lead on all three papers.

Normal human cells generally keep their DNA in chromosomes. But that’s hardly the only way ecDNA disregards norms. Research by Chang and Mischel’s team delineates how it violates one of the fundamental principles that govern inheritance to aid tumors’ growth and make them more resilient.

A biotech company that Mischel and Chang founded, Boundless Bio, is developing ecDNA-targeting therapies, including one focused on CHK1.