The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) awarded the 2022 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research to Tony Hunter, PhD, FAACR, Fellow of the AACR Academy, at its Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Tony Hunter, PhD, FAACR
Dr. Hunter is the American Cancer Society Professor and Renato Dulbecco Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He was honored for the discovery of protein tyrosine phosphorylation as a mechanism capable of contributing to cellular growth and proliferation and, in some cases, the development of cancer. This discovery has since led to the development of over 50 tyrosine and serine kinase inhibitors and has firmly established a new class of targeted cancer therapies.
Following his seminal discovery that tyrosine residues in proteins are phosphorylated by specific kinases, Dr. Hunter has focused his research on dissecting the role of posttranslational modification of proteins in controlling cell growth and proliferation. Because of his innovative work, aberrant regulation of tyrosine kinases is now widely accepted as a critical hallmark of cancer.
The AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research was established in 2004 to honor individuals who have made significant fundamental contributions to cancer research, either through a single scientific discovery or a collective body of work. These contributions, whether in research, leadership, or mentorship, must have had a lasting impact on the cancer field and must have demonstrated a lifetime commitment to progress against cancer.
