|
Corporate Social Responsibility
News
6.07.2000 ET
|
CSR News from:
|
|
|
News Category:
|
|
Cancer Scientists Receive Prestigious Honors
General Motors Awards $750,000 for Cancer Research at Gala Event
(CSRwire) Five world-renowned scientists have been recognized by the General Motors
Cancer Research Foundation (GMCRF) for their seminal contributions to
cancer research, at an awards ceremony June 7 at the U.S. Department of
State. ABC journalist Sam Donaldson will participate in the awards
ceremony, along with Secretary for Health and Human Services Donna
Shalala, General Motors Chairman of the Board John F. Smith, Jr., and
General Motors Vice Chairman Harry J. Pearce.
The awards ceremony concludes GMCRF's two-day Annual Scientific
Conference held at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Maryland. The conference, which focused on "Genomics and Cancer," included
lectures by this year's prize winners describing their research.
The awards, valued at $250,000 each, are among the most prestigious in
medicine. To date, GMCRF has awarded over $10 million to 87 scientists, in
an effort to focus worldwide scientific and public attention on cancer
research. Seven winners have subsequently won Nobel prizes.
The year's award recipients are
- Monroe E. Wall, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Research Triangle Institute;
- Mansukh C. Wani, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Research Triangle
Institute;
- Bert Vogelstein, M.D., Professor of Oncology and Pathology, and
Investigator, Howard Hughes
Medical Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine;
- Avram Hershko, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry, Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology
- Alexander J. Varshavsky, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology, California
Institute of Technology
Charles F. Kettering Prize
Dr. Wall and Dr. Wani have been honored with the Charles F. Kettering
Prize for their research resulting in the isolation from natural products
of two highly effective chemotherapeutic compounds - Camptothecin(tm) and
Taxol(r). The Kettering Prize recognizes the most outstanding recent
contribution to the diagnosis or treatment of cancer.
Taxol(r), which is widely considered one of the most important anti-cancer
compounds of the past three decades, is currently used to treat patients
with either ovarian, breast or lung cancer, and has also been effective
against Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer associated with AIDS.
Two water-soluble analogs of Camptothecin(tm) have been approved for
clinical use in the U.S. since 1996. Work is underway at Research
Triangle Institute and elsewhere to develop new, powerful applications for
this compound.
"Being right on the spot when we made these discoveries has been a joy,"
said Dr. Wall, who at age 83 is still actively at work in his North
Carolina laboratory.
Dr. Wani, 75, concurred. "Nothing could be more gratifying than this," he
said. "I have always been interested in the study of chemistry to develop
medicines, and I am very proud of our accomplishments."
Still, he pointed out that the work of a cancer researcher doesn't end
with one groundbreaking discovery. "There is always a need to find
something better and less toxic," he said.
Dr. Wall received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers
University. He is the recipient of two honorary doctorates, as well as
recognition and awards from the American Society of Pharmacognosy, the
American Association for Cancer Research and the American Chemical
Society.
Dr. Wani, a native of India, received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the
University of Bombay and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Indiana University.
Among his numerous honors are the Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award of the
American Association for Cancer Research, the City of Medicine Award and
the NCI Award of Recognition.
Charles S. Mott Prize
Dr. Vogelstein has been honored with the Charles S. Mott Prize for his
role in defining the molecular pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. The
Mott Prize is given for the most outstanding recent contribution related
to the causes or ultimate prevention of cancer.
Dr. Vogelstein's research has led to the discovery of a series of genetic
mutations that cause the initiation and progression of colon cancer.
Colorectal cancers are the third most common cancers in men and women.
They are expected to account for 11 percent of all cancer deaths in 2000.
A leading international expert and pioneer in the field of molecular
genetics, Dr. Vogelstein received his B.A. from the University of
Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, where
he also completed his internship and residency. He is a member of many key
research organizations and the recipient of numerous awards. He also serves
on the editorial boards of several leading scientific journals, including
Science and the New England Journal of Medicine.
"I look at this award as a tribute to all the work our trainees have done
over the course of 20 years in determining the genetic basis of cancer,"
Dr. Vogelstein said.
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize
Dr. Hershko and Dr. Varshavsky have been awarded the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
Prize for the discovery of the ubiquitin system for protein degradation
and the crucial functions of this system in cellular regulation. The Sloan
Prize honors the most outstanding recent basic science contribution to
cancer research.
The ubiquitin field was created in the 1980s, primarily through the
complementary and independent contributions of the laboratories of Dr.
Varshavsky and Dr. Hershko. Over the last decade, the ubiquitin system has
become central to the understanding of the emergence and progression of
cancer.
Dr. Hershko discovered the role of ubiquitin in the process of protein
degradation in the cell, while Dr. Varshavsky discovered the first
physiological roles of this process, and the relationship between the
ubiquitin system and malignancy.
"I am honored to receive this award, and grateful for the recognition it
bestows on the entire community of ubiquitin researchers," Dr. Varshavsky
said. "Back in 1990, ubiquitin studies were still a rather esoteric field.
A decade later, thousands of laboratories all over the world are studying
the ubiquitin system or problems connected to it. It is gratifying to know
that Avram Hershko's and my work in the 1980s has helped to launch a field
of this magnitude."
Dr. Varshavsky received a B.S. in chemistry from Moscow State University
and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Moscow's Institute of Molecular Biology.
Upon immigrating to the United States in 1977, Dr. Varshavsky joined the
Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where
he began his groundbreaking studies into the functions of the ubiquitin
system. Since 1992, he has been at the California Institute of Technology,
where he is the Howard and Gwen Laurie Smits Professor of Cell Biology.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, Dr. Varshavsky has most recently been honored with the
Gairdner Foundation International Award, which he shared with Dr. Hershko.
Dr. Hershko received his M.D. from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical
School in Jerusalem. Following army service as a physician, he obtained a
Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Hebrew University, and did postdoctoral
research at the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. He
is a winner of the Weizmann Prize, the Israel Prize, the Gairdner
Foundation International Award and the Wachter Award.
Dr. Samuel A. Wells, Jr., President of the GM Cancer Research Foundation,
and Dr. Phillip A. Sharp, Chairman of the Awards Assembly, praised the
award winners and cited their major contributions in cancer research. They
noted that the laureates were chosen through a rigorous review process
conducted by distinguished international scientists who served on the
Foundation's Selection Committees and Awards Assembly.
Cancer research has been a key philanthropic priority for General Motors
for nearly 25 years. GM is committed to helping eradicate cancer and
supporting cancer research until the battle iswon. As part of this
commitment, the automaker established the GM Cancer Research Foundation
(GMCRF) in 1978 to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of basic
scientists and clinical scientists in cancer research.
"We believe strongly in giving back to the community," said GM Chairman
John F. Smith, Jr. "Through these awards, we hope to bring some of the
world's most gifted scientists just that much closer to preventing,
treating and curing cancer in the future."
Past laureates include E. Donnall Thomas, M.D., who developed the
technique of bone marrow transplantation; J. Christopher Wagner, M.D., who
discovered the link between asbestos exposure and lung cancer; and Samuel
Shapiro, B.S. and Philip Strax, M.D., who demonstrated the importance of
mammograms in improving survival rates in women with breast cancer.
|
|
