AACR award presentations, lectures highlight exemplary contributions to cancer research
//
Estimated Read Time:
The American Association for Cancer Research will honor the following cancer researchers and physician-scientists for their achievements during the Annual Meeting 2024 in San Diego, California.
For the most up-to-date information on award lecture dates, times, and locations, check the online program planner.
AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research
Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, FAACR
This award honors an individual who has made significant fundamental contributions to cancer research, either through a single scientific discovery or a 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.
Rosenberg is being honored for lifelong scientific achievements and paramount contributions to cancer research and patient care, most notably his pioneering research that established interleukin-2 (IL-2) as the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cancer immunotherapy and his major contributions to establishing fundamental principles involving cellular and genetic engineering and immunotherapeutic development.
Rosenberg will present his award lecture on Saturday, April 6, at 3 p.m. PT.
AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Cancer Research
Sarah-Maria Fendt, PhD
This award recognizes an early-career investigator for meritorious achievements in basic cancer research.
Fendt is being honored for seminal contributions to deciphering the role of metabolic rewiring during cancer invasion and metastasis and for defining the principles of metabolic regulation that enable cancer cell plasticity and heterogeneity. Fendt has described novel functions of phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) in the initiation of cancer metastasis and discovered that lipid-rich environments promote metastasis by activating signaling pathways that subsequently drive metastatic outgrowth.
Fendt will present her award lecture on Monday, April 8, at 5:30 p.m. PT.
AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blood Cancer Research
Owen N. Witte, MD, FAACR
This award, supported by AbbVie, recognizes an individual on the basis of their meritorious achievements and contributions to any aspect of blood cancer research.
Witte is being honored for his unprecedented contributions to elucidating the role of tyrosine kinases in hematologic malignancies and for his pivotal role in developing novel cancer treatments. He was the first to identify the ABL fusion oncoprotein in leukemia and to predict that mutated ABL kinase could serve as a viable drug target, which would, in turn, lead to the development of imatinib as a frontline therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia. He later described Bruton’s tyrosine kinases (BTK) as key drivers of antigen-activated lymphomas and autoimmune disease, a breakthrough discovery that would result in the clinical development of the FDA-approved BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib, for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma.
Witte will present his award lecture on Tuesday, April 9, at 4:30 p.m. PT.
AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research
Nathanael S. Gray, PhD, FAACR
This award is presented for outstanding, novel, and significant chemistry research that has led to important contributions in basic cancer research, translational cancer research, cancer diagnosis, the prevention of cancer, or the treatment of patients with cancer.
Gray is being honored for pioneering innovative structure-based chemical biology approaches to designing and developing protein inhibitors and degraders that have revolutionized the future of cancer therapeutics, and for spearheading novel combinatorial chemistry and genomic approaches that have resulted in the development of several cancer therapies, including ceritinib, osimertinib, and purvalanol.
Gray will present his award lecture on Monday, April 8, at 5 p.m. PT.
AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research
Anil K. Rustgi, MD
This award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the education and training of cancer scientists and physicians at any career level and in any area of cancer research.
Rustgi is being honored for his remarkable leadership and selfless efforts to support the education and training of countless undergraduate, graduate, medical, and doctoral students; clinical residents and fellows; postdoctoral fellows; and faculty members who have subsequently translated Rustgi’s tutelage into establishing their own successful careers throughout the cancer research community.
Rustgi will present his award lecture on Sunday, April 7, at 3 p.m. PT.
AACR Distinguished Public Service Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research
Franco Cavalli, MD
This award recognizes individuals whose extraordinary work has exemplified the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy, advocacy, and funding for cancer research.
Cavalli is being honored for his longstanding scientific accomplishments in the breast cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma fields, as well as for clinical investigations involving VP16 and contributions to the development of therapeutics, including cisplatin, carboplatin, and paclitaxel. Additionally, he is being honored for his leadership and visionary commitment to improving global cancer research and health through novel and innovative mechanisms, including his organization of the biennial International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma, the world’s premier lymphoma conference. He is also being recognized for his dedication to improving pediatric oncology research and care in Central America.
Cavalli will be honored during the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 Opening Ceremony on Sunday, April 7, at 8 a.m. PT, and he will present his award lecture on Sunday at 4:15 p.m. PT.
AACR Distinguished Public Service Award
Worta McCaskill-Stevens, MD
This award recognizes individuals whose extraordinary work has exemplified the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy, advocacy, and funding for cancer research.
McCaskill-Stevens is being recognized and celebrated posthumously for her enormous contributions to cancer research, most notably cancer disparities and health equity research, as well as her relentless support of cancer clinical trials conducted in community hospitals and practices across the country, efforts that were made possible through her unparalleled leadership of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). Through her NCORP-associated efforts and personal passion for delivering care to vulnerable patient populations, McCaskill-Stevens spearheaded the inclusion and support of countless minority and underserved cancer patients in cutting-edge clinical trials throughout her career. Additionally, she has been widely revered for her lifelong commitment to ensuring that such patient populations receive the highest quality cancer health education, prevention, and treatment strategies. Further, this award is intended to honor McCaskill-Stevens’ unwavering mentorship of hundreds of students and early-stage investigators who are now continuing her legacy in the cancer research community.
McCaskill-Stevens will be honored during the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 Opening Ceremony on Sunday, April 7, at 8 a.m. PT.
AACR James S. Ewing-Thelma B. Dunn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pathology in Cancer Research
Christopher D.M. Fletcher, MD
This award, named for the AACR’s first President, James S. Ewing, MD, and the AACR’s first female President, Thelma B. Dunn, MD, both of whom were pathologists, serves to recognize and celebrate pathologists who have significantly contributed to advancing cancer research, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
Fletcher is being honored for breakthrough discoveries that have led to the molecular characterization of soft tissue tumors and for transforming the cancer pathology field by providing expert insights into tumor diagnosis and clinical prognosis. Fletcher was the first to integrate morphological aspects of soft tissues with the characterization of genetic insults leading to the definition of more than 40 distinct molecular and morphological characteristics capable of classifying mesenchymal neoplasms. These categorized molecular signatures have since contributed to the establishment of innovative therapies for cancer patients worldwide.
Fletcher will present his award lecture on Tuesday, April 9, at 4 p.m. PT.
AACR-Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research
Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, FAACR
This award recognizes a true champion of cancer research whose leadership and extraordinary achievements in cancer research have had a major impact on the field. Such achievements may include contributions to the acceleration of progress against cancer, raising national or international awareness of the importance of cancer research, or other ways of demonstrating a sustained extraordinary commitment to cancer research.
Dang is being honored for seminal contributions to elucidating the function of the MYC oncogene in regulating anabolic metabolism necessary for cell growth and proliferation. He is celebrated as the first scientist to conceptualize and demonstrate that genetic alterations in key oncogenes can lead to tumor metabolism reprogramming, which subsequently led to efforts to target cancer metabolism as a viable cancer therapeutic option. His discoveries have significantly impacted the acceleration of progress in cancer research, and his leadership and commitment to mentorship have fostered the careers of countless early-stage investigators in the cancer biology and metabolism fields.
Dang will present his award lecture on Monday, April 8, at 4:45 p.m. PT.
AACR Team Science Award
Team Womb Collective
This award, supported by Loxo@Lilly, recognizes an outstanding interdisciplinary research team for its innovative and meritorious science that has advanced or likely will advance our fundamental knowledge of cancer, or a team that has applied existing knowledge to advance the detection, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of cancer.
The Team Womb Collective is being recognized for its significant collaborative contributions to deciphering the molecular basis of Lynch syndrome-associated endometrial cancer. As an interdisciplinary team of academics and healthcare professionals from across the medical, oncology, pathology, health economics, and behavioral science fields, the Team Womb Collective has demonstrated that 3% of endometrial cancers are caused by Lynch syndrome. The team has brilliantly demonstrated that immunohistochemistry-based approaches to detecting DNA mismatch repair protein deficiencies represent a cost-effective method for detecting Lynch syndrome, work that has led to fundamental changes to endometrial cancer prevention strategies and clinical practice guidelines.
The team members include:
Emma Crosbie, BSc, MBChB, PhD, Team Leader
James Bolton, MA, BMBCh
D. Gareth Evans, MBBS, MD
Louise Gorman, MSc, PhD
Raymond McMahon, MBBCh, BAO, BSc, MD
Rhona McVey, BSc, MBChB
Nadira Narine, MSc
Katherine Payne, BPharm, MSc, PhD
Durgesh N. Rana, MBBS, MD
Neil Ryan, MBChB, PhD
The team will be honored during the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 Opening Ceremony on Sunday, April 7, at 8 a.m. PT.
AACR-American Cancer Society Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Timothy R. Rebbeck, PhD, FAACR
This award, supported by the American Cancer Society, recognizes outstanding research accomplishments in cancer epidemiology, biomarkers, and prevention.
Rebbeck is being honored for groundbreaking contributions to optimizing standards of cancer prevention in clinical practice and to reducing cancer mortality by characterizing the role of BRCA1/2 mutations in high-risk breast and ovarian cancer populations, and by quantifying prostate cancer risk in the global African diaspora using clinical patient data, conglomerate genotypes, and tumor biomarkers.
Rebbeck will present his award lecture on Tuesday, April 9, at 3 p.m. PT.
AACR-Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology
Gordon J. Freeman, PhD, FAACR
This award, supported by the Cancer Research Institute, recognizes an active scientist whose outstanding and innovative research has had a major impact on the cancer field and has the potential to stimulate new directions in cancer immunology.
Freeman is being honored for groundbreaking contributions to the discovery of the T-cell programmed death-1 receptor (PD-1) signaling pathway and the PD-1 ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2; for spotlighting the involvement of this pathway in tumor evasion of immunosurveillance; and for demonstrating that blocking this pathway could provoke an antitumor immune response. His extraordinary work has led to the development of immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and transplant rejection.
Freeman will present his award lecture on Monday, April 8, at 5 p.m. PT.
AACR-G.H.A. Clowes Award for Outstanding Basic Cancer Research
David Pellman, MD, FAACR
This award, supported by Loxo@Lilly, is intended to recognize an individual who has made outstanding recent accomplishments in basic cancer research.
Pellman is being honored for pioneering work identifying mechanisms responsible for the structural and numerical chromosome aberrations in cancer. Through the development of innovative murine models, Pellman demonstrated that whole genome duplication, now known to occur in approximately 40% of human cancers, has the potential to accelerate the somatic evolution of cancer. He also identified a mechanism explaining chromothripsis, a massive form of chromosome rearrangement that is also common in cancer. Using in-house developed methodology to combine long-term, live-cell imaging with single-cell whole genome sequencing, his group has recreated chromothripsis in the laboratory, demonstrating that it can arise from cancer-associated aberrations of the nucleus called micronuclei, thereby contributing to the mechanistic understanding of cancer genome instability.
Pellman will present his award lecture on Monday, April 8, at 5:30 p.m. PT.
AACR-Irving Weinstein Foundation Distinguished Lectureship
Rafi Ahmed, PhD
This award, supported by the Irving Weinstein Foundation, acknowledges an individual whose outstanding personal innovation in science and whose position as a thought leader in fields relevant to cancer research has the potential to inspire creative thinking and new directions in cancer research. The recipient is selected by the AACR President.
Ahmed is being honored for unparalleled scientific contributions to immunology and vaccinology, including the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of T-cell exhaustion and T-cell memory formation and differentiation following antigen exposure. He is also being recognized for his seminal demonstration that persistent viral exposure can result in PD-1-mediated T-cell exhaustion, and that anti-PD-1 antibodies are able to rescue normal T-cell function. His pioneering research has since been expanded to countless studies within the cancer research field dedicated to determining the cellular mechanisms by which T cells function. It has served as a vital catalyst to the ongoing emergence of immune-based therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer and various chronic diseases worldwide.
Ahmed will present his award lecture on Sunday, April 7, at 12:45 p.m. PT.
AACR-Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research
Joseph A. Sparano, MD
This award, supported by Bristol Myers Squibb, recognizes outstanding achievements in clinical cancer research.
Sparano is being honored for leading some of the most impactful, practice-changing studies in breast cancer and HIV-associated cancers, uncovering factors contributing to racial disparities in breast cancer, and overseeing cancer treatment and prevention research in vulnerable populations with HIV infection. Sparano led the landmark TAILORx clinical trial that transformed the standard of care for women with early-stage ER-positive, HER-2 negative, node-negative breast cancer, which accounts for nearly half of all breast cancers in the United States. The NCI-funded TAILORx trial established the clinical utility of the 21-gene recurrence score assay to guide adjuvant chemotherapy use and led to the development of the RSClin tool, which facilitates more informed decision making by integrating prognostic information provided by the recurrence score and clinicopathologic factors. Sparano also leads the NCI-funded AIDS Malignancy Consortium, overseeing a global cancer treatment and prevention network in the United States, Africa, and Latin America.
Sparano will present his award lecture on Sunday, April 7, at 4:30 p.m. PT.
AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship
Camille C. R. Ragin, PhD
This lectureship recognizes an outstanding scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the field of cancer research and who has, through leadership or by example, furthered the advancement of minority investigators in cancer research.
Ragin is being honored for unprecedented contributions to defining and understanding the genetic, molecular, and environmental factors that contribute to cancer onset and progression in underrepresented patient populations. Ragin’s elegant research has identified single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with altered expression of the DNA-damage response gene, polymerase β, that affect chemotherapy and radiotherapy response in patients of African origin. In addition to these pioneering research accomplishments, she is celebrated for providing consistent mentorship to minority cancer researchers and for leading collaborative and global projects dedicated to cancer prevention.
Ragin will present her award lecture on Sunday, April 7, at 3 p.m. PT.
AACR-Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship
Tony Hunter, PhD, FAACR
This award, supported by The Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund, recognizes an individual scientist whose novel and significant work has had or may have a far-reaching impact on the detection, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of cancer, and who embodies the dedication of Princess Takamatsu to multinational collaborations.
Hunter 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 kinases. His basic biomedical research targeting tyrosine kinases has since been successfully translated to more than 80 tyrosine kinase inhibitors clinically approved to treat and manage a multitude of cancers. Further, Hunter is recognized for his tireless commitment to establishing and leading collaborations worldwide dedicated to deciphering the complexities of cancer onset and progression and improving cancer patient care.
Hunter will present his award lecture on Sunday, April 7, at 3 p.m. PT.
AACR-St. Baldrick’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer Research
Ching-Hon Pui, MD
This award, supported by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, recognizes an individual in any sector who has significantly contributed to any area of pediatric cancer research, resulting in the fundamental improvement of the understanding and/or treatment of pediatric cancer.
Pui is being honored for revolutionizing the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and co-founding international collaborative groups dedicated to improving ALL survivorship. Pui’s clinical and translational research elegantly demonstrated that cranial irradiation, once a standard treatment for childhood high-risk ALL, may be safely omitted with consistent patient monitoring, in turn sparing patients from unnecessary radiation and improving overall quality of life. Notably, he has also pioneered the use of minimal residual disease measurement as a key component of risk-direct treatment strategies and spearheaded groundbreaking research dedicated to defining germline and somatic mutations in pediatric ALL, especially within patient populations in resource-limited countries.
Pui will present his award lecture on Tuesday, April 9, at 3:45 p.m. PT.
AACR-Waun Ki Hong Award for Outstanding Achievement in Translational and Clinical Cancer Research
Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD
This award, supported by the Waun Ki Hong Endowment Fund, recognizes a worthy cancer researcher who has conducted highly meritorious translational and clinical cancer research anywhere in the world and who has not yet reached 51 years of age at the time of the award presentation.
Kopetz is being honored for spearheading the development of novel therapies for patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic colon cancer with poor prognosis. Kopetz brilliantly developed a clinical program to personalize therapeutic regimens based on genetic profiles ascertained from patient-derived xenograft models that would lead to the finding that KRAS/NRAS mutations can contribute to MAPK-pathway inhibition resistance in BRAF-mutant cancers. This discovery has resulted in the establishment of BRAF and EGFR inhibitor combinations as a standard of care and has improved our understanding of mechanisms of resistance for such patient populations.
Kopetz will present his award lecture on Sunday, April 7, at 4:30 p.m. PT.
AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Lectureship
Elizabeth L. Travis, PhD
This award is presented to an outstanding scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the field of cancer research and who has, through leadership or by example, furthered the advancement of women in science.
Travis is being honored for her lauded research contributions to defining the effects of radiation on normal tissues, which has resulted in the characterization of complications that may arise as a result of radiation therapy and has helped guide the improvement of radiation therapy usage to improve cancer patient outcomes. Travis is also recognized for her steadfast dedication to the advancement of women in science through her leadership in serving as an advocate for women cancer researchers and for championing the recruitment and retention of women and minority cancer researchers.
Travis will present her award lecture on Monday, April 8, at 3 p.m. PT.
Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research
Titia de Lange, PhD, FAACR
This award, supported by the Pezcoller Foundation, is presented to a scientist of international renown who has made a scientific discovery in basic or translational cancer research.
De Lange is being honored for her groundbreaking discovery of molecular mechanisms by which telomeres protect chromosome ends, for the identification of the shelterin protein complex, and for demonstrating how loss of telomere protection results in aberrant genomic integrity and tumorigenesis. De Lange’s research has proven to be invaluable in the field of telomere research and has led to greater understanding of cancer development as well as genome maintenance.
De Lange will present her award lecture on Sunday, April 7, at noon PT.
