Special Edition: Highlighting AACR Recipients of 2022 Scientific Achievement Awards & Lectureships
AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research
Tony Hunter, PhD, FAACR, is American Cancer Society Professor and Renato Dulbecco Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. He is being honored for his seminal discovery of tyrosine kinases and tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins that illuminated fundamental processes of cellular signaling and enabled the development of cancer therapeutics targeting these kinases. His basic biomedical research targeting tyrosine kinases has successfully been translated to over 60 tyrosine kinase inhibitors, clinically approved to treat and manage a multitude of cancers and other diseases.
AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Cancer Research
Christina Curtis, PhD, is Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics and an Endowed Scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Director of Breast Cancer Translational Research and Co-Director of the Molecular Tumor Board at the Stanford Cancer Institute, as well as a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator at Stanford. She is being honored for her paradigm-shifting research on tumor evolution, including the Big Bang model which explains how treatment-naive cancers grow in the absence of therapeutic influence. She further developed this fundamental milestone in cancer research to explain the tendency that some cancers have to disseminate and metastasize, with implications for improved patient stratification and emergent diagnostic approaches for early cancer and pre-cancer detection.
AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blood Cancer Research
John E. Dick, PhD, FRS, FRsC, FAACR, is a senior scientist and the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network; as well as Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto. He is being honored for his groundbreaking discovery of leukemic stem cells and for developing the first hematopoietic xenograft assay using human hematopoietic cells transplanted into immune-compromised mice, a technique that has become the gold standard hematopoietic stem cell assay. His discovery of a leukemia stemness gene signature has since been used to predict survival rates and response to treatment and lays the groundwork for identifying actionable targets for drug development.
AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research
Kevan M. Shokat, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco; Professor in the Department of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley; and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is being recognized for his seminal discoveries in the field of chemical genetics, solving the fundamental selectivity challenge for protein kinases by engineering a unique ATP binding pocket and matched chemical inhibitor to exploit and selectively target individual protein kinases. His breakthrough discoveries include the development of the first covalent inhibitors of KRAS G12C, leading to clinical trials to target a once thought undruggable oncogene.
AACR Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research
Lee M. Ellis, MD, is Professor in the Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Division of Surgery; Ruben Distinguished Chair in Gastroenterology Cancer Research and Executive Director for Translational Research, Global Academic Programs, in the Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery; and Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is also Vice Chair of Translational Medicine at SWOG in Portland.
Ellis is being recognized for his pioneering research on the biology and therapy of metastatic colorectal cancer. Additionally, he is being recognized for identifying VEGF as an important mediator of colorectal cancer angiogenesis, growth and survival, and a valid therapeutic target that is now standard of care for patients with such malignancies. Importantly, during his illustrious career, he has played a critical role in the training and education of a multitude of clinical fellows, laboratory investigators, clinical investigators, and junior faculty.
AACR Distinguished Service Award
Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, FAACR, is Dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Director of the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. He is being recognized for elucidating the role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in colon cancer and the contributions of the lipid metabolite prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) to tissue inflammation in the etiology of colon cancer.
DuBois' groundbreaking work led to the discovery of a COX-2 inhibitor that reduces polyp formation in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis. Collectively, he is recognized for his significant contributions to not only the cancer field at large but also the AACR, including his past AACR Presidency, Editor-in-Chief role for the journal Cancer Prevention Research, and his service as President and Chair of the AACR Foundation Board of Trustees.
AACR James S. Ewing-Thelma B. Dunn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pathology in Cancer Research
This new award, named for the AACR's first President (Ewing) and first female President (Dunn), both of whom were pathologists, serves to recognize and celebrate pathologists who have significantly contributed to advancing cancer research, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
Elaine S. Jaffe, MD, is an NIH Distinguished Investigator in the Laboratory of Pathology and Head of the Hematopathology Section, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute. She is being recognized for her groundbreaking modern approaches to the classification of lymphoid system neoplasms. An astute diagnostician, her clinical and investigational studies have been intertwined to enhance our understanding of tumors of the immune system by revolutionizing the integration of traditional pathological methods with immunologic and genomic approaches and describing multiple new disease entities that have resulted in pivotal changes to clinical practice and patient management.
AACR Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research
Levi A. Garraway, MD, PhD, FAACR, is Executive Vice President, Jead of Global Product Development, and Chief Medical Officer at Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech. He is being honored for pioneering and championing the application of genomics to cancer research, diagnosis, drug development, and treatment, including landmark discoveries that defined mechanisms of tumorigenesis, cancer progression, and therapeutic resistance. A world leader and visionary in the field, he has made crucial contributions to cancer precision medicine including the identification of numerous driver genes, clinical adaptation and implementation of tumor genomic profiling, characterization of resistance to multiple targeted therapies, and discovery of novel non-coding mutations in the telomerase gene promoter that represent hallmark genetic events in many cancer types.
AACR Team Science Award
The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital Breast Cancer Research Team will receive the AACR Team Science Award for their seminal translational discoveries in breast cancer research that have led to significant improvements in diagnosis and treatment. This team has led the discovery of new therapeutic approaches and the biomarkers that identify the populations of patients that gain most benefit from them. Examples include PARP inhibitors, which have changed how patients and breast cancers with BRCA1/2 mutations are tested and treated; the development of aromatase inhibitors in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer; and predictive biomarkers that have informed how systemic treatments may be selected, de-escalated, or adapted following evidence of therapeutic response or resistance.
This effective team has also led work that has fundamentally changed international radiotherapy dose fractionation to reduce treatment duration, and characterized molecular changes occurring in breast cancer that contribute to metastatic colonization, resistance to cell death, and vulnerability to targeted therapies. The team includes the following individuals:
* Alan Ashworth, PhD, FMedSci, FRS, FAACR
* Judith Bliss, MSc
* Mitchell Dowsett, PhD, FMedSci
* Clare M. Isacke, DPhil, FMedSci
* Stephen Johnston, MA, FRCP, PhD
* Christopher Lord, DPhil
* Pascal Meier, PhD
* Alistair Ring, MA, MD, FRCP
* Ian Smith, MD, FRCP, FRCPE
* Nicholas C. Turner, MA, FRCP, PhD, FMedSci
* Andrew Tutt, MBChB, PhD, FRCR, MRCP, FMedSci
* John Yarnold, MBBS, FRCP, FRCR
AACR-American Cancer Society Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
This award recognizes outstanding research accomplishments in cancer epidemiology, biomarkers, and prevention.
Susan E. Hankinson, ScD, is Associate Dean for Research and Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is being honored for her remarkable contributions to the fields of cancer epidemiology, biomarkers, prevention, and the etiology of breast cancer. Additionally, she is being recognized for leading the first large-scale blood and urine collections in women for biomarker discovery utilizing novel biospecimen collection protocols she developed, including one that collected samples timed for a woman's menstrual cycle.
Hankinson's seminal work revealed profound insights into the association of sex hormones and other hormones with breast cancer risk, and cumulatively has provided critical new knowledge into the hormonal etiology of breast cancer in both pre- and post-menopausal women.
AACR-Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology
Ira Mellman, PhD, FAACR, is Vice President of Cancer Immunology at Genentech and Adjunct Professor at University of California, San Francisco. He is being recognized for paramount advances in cell biology, including the discovery of endosomes and applying these insights to understanding the immune response, and for demonstrating how dendritic cell maturation regulates the balance between immunity and tolerance. He has elucidated the mechanism of the PD-L1/PD-1 signaling pathway and the conceptualization of the cancer-immunity cycle, bringing atezolizumab to the clinic, and overseeing the discovery and development of iNeST-RNA, tiragolumab (anti-TIGIT), cobimetinib, mosunetuzumab, and a variety of other therapeutics currently in early stages of clinical investigation.
AACR-G.H.A. Clowes Award for Outstanding Basic Cancer Research:
Ronald M. Evans, PhD, FAACR, is Professor and Director of the Gene Expression Laboratory and the March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is being recognized for elucidating the complete structure of the human glucocorticoid receptor, which led to the discovery of a nuclear receptor superfamily for steroids, Vitamins A and D, thyroid hormone, bile acids, fatty acids, and cholesterol metabolites. An authority on hormones, Evans has identified a myriad of primary nuclear receptors as targets for the treatment of many cancers including leukemia, lymphoma, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. Additionally, he has discovered a new class of PPARdelta drugs called exercise mimetics, which pharmacologically promote the benefits of fitness and thus have a broad impact in metabolic disease.
AACR-Irving Weinstein Foundation Distinguished Lectureship
Craig M. Crews, PhD, is the John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Management; and Executive Director of the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery at Yale University. He is being recognized for excellence in drug discovery and development spanning from molecule to patient and for his work on pharmacological modulation of protein turnover. Combining groundbreaking science with strong entrepreneurship, he has spearheaded new and revolutionary therapeutic approaches including the development of novel proteasome inhibitors and proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology, enabling the drugging of cancer targets previously considered undruggable.
AACR-Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research
Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), is Professor of Medicine in Medical Oncology and Associate Cancer Center Director for Experimental Therapeutics at the Yale Cancer Center at the Yale School of Medicine. She is being recognized for exemplary leadership in drug development and translational cancer therapeutics and for her pioneering work on early-phase clinical investigation of novel therapies and combination strategies for advanced cancers. LoRusso's unwavering and inexhaustible efforts in the design, conduct, analysis, and knowledge dissemination of early-phase cancer clinical trials have created paradigm shifts in the treatment of cancer malignancies.
AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship
Robert A. Winn, MD, is Director and Lipman Chair in Oncology at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Massey Cancer Center, as well as Senior Associate Dean for Cancer Innovation and Professor of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine at the VCU School of Medicine. He is being recognized for outstanding leadership and exceptional efforts in studying lung cancer, addressing health disparities, and promoting community-based health care. Winn's contributions and advancements toward understanding the pathogenesis of lung cancer have unlocked several novel targets in the areas of Wnt signaling, RNA binding proteins, ion channels, and protein methylation.
A true pioneer taking the field of cancer research to the next level, his vision to translate basic science into clinical impact in reducing lung cancer disparities has resulted in Specialized Programs of Research Excellence and Stand Up To Cancer awards, focusing on the interplay between "ZNA," an individual's zip code and cancer risk, and DNA.
AACR-Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship
Rene Bernards, PhD, FAACR, is a founding member at the Oncode Institute, Co-Founder of Oncosence BC, Co-Founder of Qameleon Therapeutics BV, and senior staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. He is being honored for monumental contributions to establishing innovative strategies by which to identify biomarkers of treatment response and effective treatment combinations; for pioneering the use of genetic screening tests to identify and stratify individuals at risk of developing breast cancer; and for employing functional genomic approaches to identify vulnerabilities of cancers that may be therapeutically exploited. Bernards is also being recognized for his unparalleled ability to foster and nourish collaborative global cancer research efforts.
AACR-St. Baldrick's Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer Research
David Malkin, MD, is senior staff oncologist in the Division of Haematology/Oncology, Director of the Cancer Genetics Program, and senior scientist in the Genetics and Genome Biology program at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is being recognized for his unrivaled, visionary, and paradigm-shifting holistic approaches to treating pediatric cancer, discovering the link between germline mutations in the TP53 tumor suppressor gene and the Li-Fraumeni cancer susceptibility syndrome, and establishing the "Toronto protocol" for tumor surveillance in Li-Fraumeni Syndrome.
Malkin initiated the first childhood cancer predisposition clinic, which has served as the gold standard for the management of families with cancer predisposition syndromes, while spearheading cancer genomic efforts including sophisticated diagnostic, prognostic, and surveillance tools for the management of such patients.
AACR-Waun Ki Hong Award for Outstanding Achievement in Translational and Clinical Cancer Research
Daniel D. de Carvalho, PhD, is a senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. He is being recognized for groundbreaking work on the development and application of novel circulating tumor DNA methylome profiling approaches for cancer classification and early cancer detection; his landmark discovery of the main anti-tumor mechanism of DNA demethylating drugs known as viral mimicry; and for his pioneering discoveries concerning the epigenetic regulation of repetitive elements and downstream viral mimicry responses in cancer development and cancer therapy.
AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Lectureship
Martine F. Roussel, PhD, FAACR, is a member of the St. Jude faculty; the Endowed Chair in Molecular Carcinogenesis; Chair of Erasmus University of Sciences, Paris, VII France and St. Jude Exchange Program; and Professor in the Department of Molecular Sciences at University of Tennessee, Memphis. Roussel is being recognized for pivotal and enormous contributions to the understanding of childhood brain cancers, especially medulloblastoma, specifically highlighting how developmental pathways and cell cycle regulatory proteins, including cyclin-dependent kinases and their inhibitors, are capable of regulating central nervous system function and brain tumor initiation and progression.
Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research
Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, FAACR, is Chief of the Surgery Branch, senior investigator, and Head of the Tumor Immunology Section at the National Cancer Institute. He is being recognized for pioneering the development of effective immunotherapies and gene therapies for patients with advanced cancers, and being the first to introduce a foreign gene into a human and to successfully utilize T-cell receptors against solid epithelial cancers and chimeric antigen receptors against lymphomas.
Rosenberg has identified somatic mutations as targets of T-cell immunotherapy and has demonstrated that administration of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes along with an IL-2 and a lymphodepleting preparative regimen stimulates complete remission in metastatic melanoma and selected other cancers.
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