Smita Krishnaswamy, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics and Computer Science at the Yale School of Medicine, is part of a multidisciplinary international research team awarded up to $25 million by Cancer Grand Challenges. The team, known as REWIRE-CAN, was selected from over 220 global applicants to tackle one of the most daunting hurdles in oncology: the "rewiring" of cancer cells to reverse treatment resistance.
As a key investigator in the REWIRE-CAN consortium, Dr. Krishnaswamy will apply her lab’s pioneering machine learning and data analysis techniques to help transform therapeutic approaches for colorectal cancer. The project aims to turn cancer’s own survival mechanisms against itself—converting a tumor's biological advantages into fatal vulnerabilities.
The REWIRE-CAN team seeks to disrupt the "comfort zone" of cancer cells—a state that allows malignant cells to survive, adapt, and grow despite treatment. By developing precise signaling modulators, the researchers aim to push these cells beyond their natural limits, inducing cellular collapse or reprogramming resistant cells to become sensitive to therapy once again.
Dr. Krishnaswamy’s expertise in manifold learning and deep learning will be instrumental in mapping these complex cellular transitions. Her lab at Yale focuses on extracting patterns from high-dimensional biomedical data to drive discovery, a capability that is essential for understanding how to effectively "rewire" a cell's internal circuitry.
While the primary focus is on colorectal cancer, the team’s work is expected to provide a roadmap for rewiring cancer cells across various tumor types. By moving from discovery science to testing new therapeutic concepts in models that reflect patient disease, the researchers hope to accelerate the journey from laboratory ideas to life-saving interventions.
Cancer Grand Challenges is a global research initiative co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US, designed to invite diverse, international teams to come together and think differently to solve cancer’s toughest challenges. The $25 million award to the REWIRE-CAN team is part of a larger $125 million investment by Cancer Grand Challenges into five new teams tackling the toughest problems in cancer research. Funding is provided by Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Institute, the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK, and Yosemite.