The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recently announced its newly elected class of Fellows of the AACR Academy.
The mission of the AACR Academy is to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose scientific contributions have propelled innovation and progress against cancer. The Fellows of the AACR Academy serve as a global brain trust, helping to advance the mission of the AACR to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research.
All Fellows are nominated and elected through an annual peer-review process conducted solely by existing Fellows of the AACR Academy and ratified by the AACR Academy Steering Committee and AACR Executive Committee. This process involves a rigorous assessment of each candidate’s scientific accomplishments in cancer research and cancer-related sciences. Consideration for election and induction into the AACR Academy is restricted to individuals whose work has had a significant and enduring impact on the cancer research field.
New Fellows
Members of the newly elected 2019 class of Fellows of the AACR Academy include:
Frederick R. Appelbaum, MD, Executive Vice President and Deputy Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
For developing transformative therapies for leukemias, lymphomas, and other blood cancers, and for leading the first clinical trial demonstrating the utility of autologous bone marrow transplantation
Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Professor of Medicine, Senior Vice President, Vice Dean for Science, and Chief Scientific Officer, NYU Langone Health, New York
For delineating the fundamental mechanisms by which Ras oncogenes regulate cellular proliferation, survival, metabolism, and signaling, and for defining Ras-mediated modulation of these processes in pancreatic cancer initiation and progression
The Fellows of the AACR Academy serve as a global brain trust, helping to advance the mission of the AACR to prevent and cure all cancers….—
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Lisa M. Coussens, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell, Development, and Cancer Biology, and Associate Director of Basic Research, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland
For leading studies on the tumor microenvironment, and for determining the roles of matrix metalloproteinases and immune cells in promoting tumor progression and defining the importance of chronic inflammation in cancer
George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
For demonstrating the role of the BCR/ABL oncogene in the pathogenesis of chronic myeloid leukemia, and for the creation of pluripotent stem cell–based disease models to improve drug and transplantation therapies for malignant and genetic diseases
Gerard I. Evan, PhD, FRS, Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Cambridge Cancer Center, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
For elucidating the molecular dichotomy of the Myc protein as an inducer of both cell proliferation and cell death, and for generating inducible mouse models capable of recapitulating genetic insults commonly observed in cancer
Gordon J. Freeman, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Researcher, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
For groundbreaking contributions to the discovery of the PD-1 signaling pathway and the PD-1 ligands, PD-L1, and PD-L2; and for spotlighting the involvement of this pathway in tumor evasion of immunosurveillance
Levi A. Garraway, MD, PhD, Senior Vice President, Global Development & Medical Affairs, Lilly Oncology, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis
For promoting the high-throughput adaptation of genomic technologies to profile human tumors to identify actionable cancer gene mutations
Mel F. Greaves, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology, The Institute of Cancer Research, London
For highlighting the biologic underpinnings of pediatric leukemia onset and clonal evolution, and for demonstrating how exposure to infection and specific genetic mutations correlate with cancer susceptibility and leukemogenesis in pediatric populations
Philip D. Greenberg, MD, Professor, Departments of Medicine/Oncology and Immunology, University of Washington School of Medicine; Head of the Program in Immunology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
For revealing the immunobiology of host T-cell responses to malignant tumors and pathogenic viral infections, and for providing crucial insights into the biologic mechanisms by which T cells distinguish tumor cells from normal cells
Daniel A. Haber, MD, PhD, Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center; Kurt J. Isselbacher Professor of Oncology, Harvard Medical School; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston
For characterizing EGFR mutations in lung cancer, biologic properties of circulating tumor cells in cancer, and WT1 and WTX tumor suppressors in Wilms tumors; and for contributing to the fundamental understanding of molecular carcinogenesis and drug sensitivity
Jules A. Hoffmann, PhD, Professor and Chair of Integrative Biology, University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, Strasbourg, France
For his Nobel Prize–winning discovery of the receptors of innate immunity and their roles in detecting microorganisms and subsequently activating signaling pathways that control innate immune responses
Tasuku Honjo, MD, PhD, Deputy Director General and Distinguished Professor, Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto, Japan
For his Nobel Prize–winning discovery of the PD-1 protein and its ligands, PD-L1, and PD-L2, and for demonstrating the ability of anti–PD-L1 antibodies to inhibit tumor growth
Scott W. Lowe, PhD, Chair, Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York
For investigating the molecular mechanisms governing tumor suppression and for establishing preclinical mouse models allowing for the genetic validation of cancer targets
Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, Nationwide Foundation Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine and Co-Executive Director, Institute for Genomic Medicine, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
For her efforts to develop and apply next-generation sequencing technologies to the characterization of cancer genomes
Larry Norton, MD, Senior Vice President of the Office of the President, Medical Director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center, and Norna S. Sarofim Chair of -Clinical Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York
For his contributions to breast cancer management and clinical cancer research, and for constructing mathematical models to predict tumor growth based on Gompertzian growth kinetics
Moshe Oren, PhD, Director of the Moross Integrated Cancer Center and Professor of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
For his research involving the cloning of the gene that encodes p53, and for his biochemical and biologic discoveries that have revealed the basis for the ability of p53 to act as a tumor suppressor, as well as the consequences of p53 inactivation in cancer
Robert D. Schreiber, PhD, Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Professor of Molecular Microbiology, Founding Director of the Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs, Co-Leader of the Tumor Immunology Program, Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center; Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
For investigating tumor growth in adaptive immune system–deficient RAG2 knockout mice, and for developing and championing the concept of “cancer immunoediting”
Arlene H. Sharpe, MD, PhD, George Fabyan Professor of Comparative Pathology, Chair of the Department of Immunology and Co-Director of the Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School, Boston
For defining how T-cell co-stimulatory and co--inhibitory molecules and pathways regulate immune responses, and for demonstrating that T cells are required to repress immune responses to combat tissue transplantation rejection and autoimmune disease
Louis M. Staudt, MD, PhD, Co-Chief of the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch, NIH Distinguished Investigator, and Director of the Center for Cancer Genomics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
For dissecting the fundamental nature of B-cell lymphoma and human lymphoid malignancies, and for highlighting how gene-expression profiling may be used to identify distinct cancer types and subtypes
Bruce W. Stillman, PhD, President, Chief Executive Officer, and William J. Matheson Professor of Cancer Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York
For discovering the human origin recognition complex and prereplication complex proteins responsible for orchestrating DNA replication, for further elucidating the mechanisms by which DNA and chromatin are effectively replicated, and for defining how genetic material is transferred and how aberrations in replication may contribute to cancer
Zena Werb, PhD, Professor of the Department of Anatomy and Associate Director for Basic Science, University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco
For her contributions to the understanding of cellular microenvironments, inflammation, and intercellular communications in breast development and carcinogenesis; and for discovering MMP3, MMP12, and the central processes by which these matrix metalloproteinases induce extracellular matrix remodeling and proteolysis
Eric F. Wieschaus, PhD, Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University,
Princeton, New Jersey
For his Nobel Prize–winning identification of genes responsible for controlling embryonic development and their impact on tumorigenesis, and for conducting large-scale mutagenesis screens in Drosophila melanogaster to identify genes responsible for embryonic patterning and development. ■
