In each of the forthcoming issues, a selection of Editorial Board members and Authors will be featured. A full overview can be found at http://www.moloncol.org.
Julio E. Celis, Editor-in-Chief
Professor and Director, Institute of Cancer Biology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark
Julio E. Celis is Professor and Director of the Institute of Cancer Biology at the Danish Cancer Society and is generally recognized as one of the founding fathers of proteomics. Julio Celis' group in Aarhus introduced the use of protein identification techniques to map HeLa cell proteins and developed the first protein database in 1981. In the early 1980s, the group also laid out the foundations for proteomics by annotating the databases with information gathered from applications to problems in cell biology, in particular cell proliferation and transformation. Together with J. Vandekerckhove he later introduced the use of large scale protein identification using microsequencing. Celis' group in Copenhagen has pioneered the use of proteomics to the analysis of bladder and breast cancer and introduced the concept of discovery-driven translational cancer research. Julio Celis is currently Secretary General of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), and President of the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE).
Website: http://proteomics.cancer.dk/
E-mail: jec@cancer.dk
Mariano Barbacid, Ph.D
Director, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain
Mariano Barbacid is Director of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), a new institute in Madrid that he helped to put together in the late 90s, after spending 23 years in the US. In 1982, he led one of the three groups that isolated the first human oncogene (H-Ras) and unveiled its mechanism of activation. Other contributions of special relevance include the identification in 1991 of the Trk family of tyrosine protein kinases – previously discovered in his group in the mid 80s – as the receptors for the NGF family of neurotrophic factors. Since his return to Spain, the Barbacid lab has concentrated on designing new animal models that closely recapitulate the natural history of human cancers and in studying the role of Cdks in the regulation of the cell cycle. This work has challenged the classical model of the mammalian cell cycle by demonstrating that the G1/S cyclin-dependent kinases are dispensable for cell division. The relevance of his work has been recognised by several awards, including the Young Investigator Award of the American Association of Cancer Research (USA, 1986), Steiner Prize (Switzerland, 1988), Ipsen Prize (France, 1994) and the Brupbaher Cancer Research Prize (Switzerland, 2005). He became an Associate Member of EMBO in 1996.
Website: http://www.cnio.es
E-mail: barbacid@cnio.es
Dr. Pier Paolo Di Fiore
Scientific Director, FIRC Institute for Molecular Oncology Foundation, Milan, and Professor General Pathology, University of Milan, Italy
Dr. Pier Paolo Di Fiore received his M.D./Ph.D from the University of Naples, Italy and was subsequently Board certified in Oncology, at the same University. After finishing a Fogarty Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, he was tenured and served as Section Chief in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology of the NCI. In 1995, he returned to Italy; he is now the Scientific Director of the FIRC Institute for Molecular Oncology Foundation in Milan and Professor of General Pathology at the University of Milan. His research interests include studies on the mechanisms of signal transduction by growth factor receptors in tumours and the role of endocytosis in this process. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and Editor of The Journal of Cell Biology. He has published more than 150 papers in international journals. In the course of his career, he has received significant honors and awards, such as the Swiss Bridge Award and the Technology Transfer Award of the National Cancer Institute (NIH), and has pioneered the development of two biotech companies.
Website: http://www.ifom-ieo-campus.it/groups/difiore.html
Manel Esteller, MD, Ph.D
Director Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain
Dr. Esteller graduated in Medicine with Honors from the University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and obtained his Ph.D Degree cum Laude at the University of Barcelona. He was an Invited Researcher at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom and a Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Associate at The Johns Hopkins University and School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA. Author of more than 160 original peer-reviewed manuscripts in biomedical sciences in the most highly-ranked journals, he has placed the hypermethylation-associated silencing of tumor suppressor genes and the landscape of histone modifications at the forefront, not only of epigenetics, but also of the current cancer research. He is an advisor and advocate of the Human Epigenome Project and Associate Member of the European Network of Excellence the Epigenome. His numerous awards include: Best Young Investigator from the European Association for Cancer Research (2000), Hospital de Madrid Foundation Award for Translational Science (2005), Beckman-Coulter Award from the Spanish Association of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2006), Biomedical Research Award Francisco Cobos Foundation (2006), Oxford University Press Carcinogenesis Award (2006) and Swiss Bridge Cancer Award (2006).
Websites: http://www.cancerepigenetics.com/ and http://www.cnio.es/ing/grupos/plantillas/presentacion.asp?grupo=50004270
Todd R. Golub, MD
Charles A. Dana Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA
Todd Golub is a founding member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and serves as director of its Cancer program. Todd is a world leader in applying genomic tools to the classification and study of cancers. His work focuses on using the human genome to understand the biological and clinical challenges facing cancer medicine. He has made fundamental discoveries in the molecular basis of childhood leukaemia, and pioneered the use of genomic approaches, particularly DNA microarrays, to cancer biology. Todd is the Charles A. Dana Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Todd is the recipient of multiple awards, including Discover Magazine's Inventor of the Year (Health Category) in 2000, the Daland Prize of the American Philosophical Society in 2001, and the Outstanding Achievement Award (formerly Cornelius Rhoads Memorial Prize), American Association for Cancer Research in 2002.
Todd received his B.A in 1985 from Carleton College and his M.D. in 1989 from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Website: http://www.broad.mit.edu
Carl-Henrik Heldin, Ph.D
Branch Director, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Uppsala, Sweden Professor in Molecular Cell Biology, Uppsala University, Sweden
C.-H. Heldin has been the Branch Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Uppsala, Sweden since 1986, and from 1992 also professor in Molecular Cell Biology at Uppsala University. He was born in 1952, and obtained a Ph.D degree in Medical and Physiological Chemistry in 1980 at the University of Uppsala, where he continued to work until 1985, in a position sponsored by the Swedish Cancer Society.
The research interest of C.-H. Heldin is related to the mechanisms of signal transduction by growth regulatory factors, as well as their normal function and role in disease. In particular, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), a major mitogen for connective tissue cells, and transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b), which inhibits the growth of most cell types, are studied. An important goal is to explore the possible clinical utility of signal transduction antagonists.
C.-H. Heldin is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Academia Europea. He serves or has served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several companies and academic institutions, including the German cancer Center, Heidelberg, Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, European Institute for Oncology, Milan, and European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg. C.-H. Heldin is currently on the Board of the European Research Council and the Swedish Research Council, and serves as Senior Editor for Cancer Research and Associate Editor for Molecular Biology of the Cell, Genes to Cells and Growth Factors.
C.-H. Heldin has published more than 340 research simple-articles and 170 reviews, and has received several scientific awards, including Prix Antoine Lacassagne (1989), K. Fernströms Large medical Prize (1993) and the Pezcoller-American Association for Cancer Research Award (2002).
Website: http://www.licr.uu.se/
Dr. Les Hughes
Global VP for Cancer and Infection Research at AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca has a heritage in anti-hormonal drugs with the discovery and development of Nolvadex (tamoxifen), Arimidex and Faslodex for the treatment of hormone responsive breast cancer. In addition, the anti-androgen Casodex and the LHRH agonist Zoladex are used for prostate cancer and Zoladex for pre-menopausal breast cancer. Currently, the research effort in cancer is targeted at finding novel therapies aimed at one of the following distinguishing features of cancer by blocking proliferation, inducing apoptosis, blocking angiogenesis, inhibiting invasion or controlling the cell cycle. The initial drug from this research, Iressa (inhibitor of EGF receptor tyrosine kinase), is benefiting patients with NSCLC while there are a number of other agents in late stage development. AstraZeneca undertakes their oncology drug discovery at labs in Boston (USA), Macclesfield (UK), Reims (France) and Cambridge (England).
Websites: http://www.astrazeneca.co.uk/ and http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/
Professor David Kerr
Rhodes Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Professor David Kerr is Rhodes Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Oxford. He is working with colleagues in Oxford to build a new Institute for Cancer Medicine. He has an international reputation for treatment for and research into colorectal cancer, and he is developing new approaches to cancer treatment which involve gene therapy. The quality of his work has been recognised by the award of several international prizes and the first NHS Nye-Bevan award for innovation. He has published more than 350 simple-articles in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to many books on cancer. Professor Kerr has chaired the Advisory Board developing a vision for the future of Scotland's Health Service and produced a 20-year-plan for the future of the NHS in Scotland, Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Oncology, Europe's premier medical oncology journal, and is on the editorial broad of several other journals including Nature Clinical Practice Oncology. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000 and appointed Commander of the British Empire in 2002.
Website: http://www.clinpharm.ox.ac.uk/
Dr. Edison T. Liu
Executive Director, Genome Institute of Singapore (Biomedical Sciences Institutes) Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore Special Advisor to the President, National University of Singapore Director, Singapore Cancer SyndicateDirector, Singapore Tissue Network
Dr. Edison Liu was born in Hong Kong, China and received his Bachelor's degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in Chemistry and Psychology from Stanford University where he remained to complete his M.D. in 1978. This was followed by internship and residency in internal medicine at Washington University, St. Louis, and clinical cancer fellowships at Stanford University (Oncology), and at the University of California at San Francisco (Hematology). He then pursued postdoctoral studies as a Damon-Runyan Cancer Research Fellow at the University of California at San Francisco in the laboratory of Dr. J. Michael Bishop. In 1987, when he joined the faculty of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC, Dr. Liu held faculty appointments in medicine, biochemistry, epidemiology, and genetics, and was director of UNC's Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Breast Cancer. Dr. Liu was leader of the Breast Cancer Program at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and co-founder of the Breast Care Center at UNC. In 1995, he was appointed Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, UNC. In 1996, he joined the NCI as the Director of the Division of Clinical Sciences. In this capacity, he was responsible for the scientific and administrative direction for the intramural clinical research arm of the NCI comprised of over 100 principal investigators, 400 trainees, and 1,200 employees.
In 2001, Dr. Liu assumed the position of Executive Director, Genome Institute of Singapore which is a key programme of the Biomedical Sciences Initiative of Singapore. The GIS now houses 230 individuals focused on integrating genomic sciences with cell and medical biology using systems approaches. His current scientific research investigates the dynamics of gene regulation on a genome scale that can explain biological states in cancer. Dr. Liu has contributed over 200 simple-articles, reviews, and book chapters to the scientific literature. Dr. Liu also is the executive director of the Singapore Cancer Syndicate, a governmental funding agency supporting clinical translational cancer research, and the Managing Director of the Singapore Tissue Network, the national tissue repository in Singapore.
Dr. Liu has received a number of awards including the Leukemia Society Scholar (1991–1996), the Brinker International Award for basic science research in Breast Cancer (1996), the Rosenthal Award from the American Association for Cancer Research for his work in elucidating the importance of the HER-2 gene as a predictive marker for breast cancer adjuvant therapy (2000). Dr. Liu was recently the recipient of the President's Public Service Medal for his work in helping Singapore resolve the SARS crisis.
Website: http://www.gis.a-star.edu.sg/internet/site/
John Mendelsohn, MD
President, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
Dr. John Mendelsohn was born in Cincinnati and earned his Bachelor's degree in Biochemical Sciences Magna cum Laude from Harvard College in 1958. While there, he was the first undergraduate student of Dr. James D. Watson, who later won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying the structure of DNA. Dr. Mendelsohn received his medical degree cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1963. He was founding director of the Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, and served as chairman of the department of medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for eleven years.
Dr. Mendelsohn combines experience in clinical and laboratory research with administrative expertise for guiding The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in the new century. Since becoming president in July 1996, he has recruited a visionary management team and implemented new priorities for integrated programs in patient care, research, education and cancer prevention.
For almost three decades, Dr. Mendelsohn has been at the forefront in understanding how growth factors regulate the proliferation of cancer cells by activating receptors on the surface of the cells. These receptors, when activated, control key cell signaling pathways. He and his colleagues developed a specific monoclonal antibody called Cetuximab (Erbitux™), which blocks the activity of the receptor for epidermal growth factor. Their publication in 1983 was the first demonstration of an anticancer therapy which targets a growth factor receptor and a tyrosine kinase, and their publication in 1991 was the first clinical trial testing this approach in cancer patients. Subsequent clinical studies have demonstrated that therapy combining this antireceptor antibody with chemotherapy or radiation is effective treatment for patients with several forms of cancer. On February 12, 2004, the FDA approved Erbitux™ for treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, and on March 1, 2006 for treatment of head and neck cancer.
Dr. Mendelsohn served as the founding editor of Clinical Cancer Research, a bimonthly clinical research journal published by the American Association for Cancer Research. He has authored more than 250 scientific papers and simple-articles for journals and a textbook on the Molecular Basis of Cancer. Dr. Mendelsohn's past honors include the Gold Medal of Paris, the Joseph H. Burchenal Clinical Research Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Jill Rose Award. He was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In May 2002, he received the Simon Shubitz Prize from the University of Chicago. He was honored with the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2002, and received the Bristol-Myers Squibb Freedom to Discover Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research in October 2004. In April 2005 he and his wife were jointly honored for public service by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In May 2005 he received the Fullbright Lifetime Achievement Medal which was created to honor Fullbright alumni whose distinguished careers and civic and cultural contributions have sought to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy, and perception. In May 2006, he received the Dan David Prize in the Future Time Dimension at Tel Aviv University for pioneering the rapidly developing modality of antibody-mediated cancer therapy in general and that of antibodies to growth factor receptors in particular.
Dr. Mendelsohn and his wife, Anne, jointly participate in multiple civic activities. Dr. Mendelsohn is an active member of the Greater Houston Partnership (Board), the Houston Technology Center (Board), BioHouston (Vice-Chairman), the Center for Houston's Future (Board) and the Houston Forum. The Mendelsohns have three sons.
Website: http://www.mdanderson.org
Dr. Jeffrey W. Pollard, Ph.D
Deputy Director, Cancer Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Director, Center for the Study of Reproductive Biology and Women's Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
Since 2003, Dr. Pollard is Deputy Director of the Cancer Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and also Director of the Center for the Study of Reproductive Biology and Women's Health of the same institute. He received his Ph.D in 1975 while with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UK, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute, Canada (1975–1979). He returned to the UK to take up an appointment as lecturer at Kings's College, University of London (1980–1988). In 1988 he was appointed Associate Professor of the Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and became Professor of the department in 1993. In the same year also became Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women's Health.
Dr. Pollard's research interests focus on the role of the tumor micro-environment in modulating tumor progression and metastatic potential; tumor educated macrophages and cancer; mechanism of action of female sex steroid hormones in regulating cell proliferation in vitro; placental immunity.
Website: http://www.aecom.yu.edu/home
Alan Spatz, MD
Head, Immunophenotype and Biopsies Unit, Institut Gustave-Roussy (IGR), Villejuif, France
Alan Spatz is a pathologist and Head of the Immunophenotype and biopsies Unit at the Institut Gustave-Roussy (IGR), France. He received his medical degree (1992) and his pathology certification (1992) at the Paris University (PARIS XI).
Dr. Spatz is a member of numerous professional organizations including the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the International Academy of Pathology (IAP), and the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). He has served EORTC in various capacities, such as Chairman of the EORTC Melanoma group, Chairman of the EORTC Pathology group, member of the Translational Research Advisory Committee, and co-Chairman of the US NIC-EORTC working group on tissue repositories. He has recently been elected member of the EORTC board.
Dr. Spatz has participated in numerous international meetings, serving as faculty, discussant, and Session Chair. He is also the President of the French division of the IAP. He plays an active role in translational research, and has been particularly involved in the characterization of key molecular defects associated with melanoma progression ad pre-neoplasic changes associated with BRCA-1 related ovarian cancers. He ahs also directly contributed to the European standards for melanoma pathology report and the establishment of a clinical trials-related tissue bank within the EORTC.
In 2006 Dr. Spatz was elected Chairman of the EORTC Melanoma group. The EORTC Melanoma group is the main melanoma clinical trial network in Europe and has a tracking record of fast accrual in stage III and stage IV melanomas.
Dr. Spatz has served as author or co-author of 95 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and textbooks.
Website: http://www.igr.fr/
Dr. Sheila Taube
Associate Director, Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP), National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA
Dr. Taube is the Associate Director for the Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP) of the National Cancer Institute. She launched the Program for the Assessment of Clinical Cancer Tests (PACCT) in September 2000. This program is designed to ensure efficient and effective translation of new knowledge and technology related to cancer diagnosis into clinical practice. PACCT was instrumental in developing the first prospective trial of a molecular signature for benefit of chemotherapy in early stage breast cancer, the TAILORx trial, which opened in 2006.
Dr. Taube serves on the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Expert Panel to develop practice guidelines for tumor markers. She co-edited a special issue of Seminars in Oncology devoted to tumor markers. Dr. Taube collaborated with the EORTC to launch the series of international meetings, Molecular Markers for Cancer: From Discovery to Clinical Practice. She and a colleague developed the syllabus for a course for industry, “From Hypothesis to Product: an EORTC-NCI Diagnostics Development Tutorial.”
Website: http://www.cancerdiagnosis.nci.nih.gov/
Axel Ullrich, Ph.D
Research Director, Singapore OncoGenome Project, Centre for Molecular Medicine, A*STAR Director, Molecular Biology, Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Germany
Professor Axel Ullrich was trained as a biochemist at the University of Tuebingen (Germany) and earned a Ph.D in Heidelberg in Molecular Genetics in 1975. After a postdoctoral tenure at the University of California, San Francisco, he joined Genentech in 1978. His work in the field of signal transduction research has elucidated major fundamental molecular mechanisms that govern the physiology of normal cells and allow insights into patho-physiological mechanisms of major human diseases such as cancer.
For over 30 years Professor Ullrich has been a leader in gene-technology, translating basic science discoveries into medical applications. This led in the mid eighties to the development of Humulin (human insulin for the treatment of diabetes; Lilly), the first therapeutic agent to be developed through gene-based technology and the first biotechnology product ever. Another biotech product that is based on Professor Ullrich's work is Herceptin, the first target-directed, gene discovery-based cancer therapy for the treatment of metastatic breast carcinoma (Genentech/Roche). His third contribution to biomedicine, SU11248/SUTENT, was conceived on the basis of discoveries in his laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and developed by SUGEN/Pharmacia and Pfizer. It was recently approved by the FDA (1/2006) and the EMEA (7/2006) for the treatment of Gastro Intestinal Stromal Tumors and Renal Cell Carcinoma (Pfizer).
Since 1988, Professor Ullrich has been Director of the Department of Molecular Biology at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried and in addition since 2004 he is Research Director of the Singapore OncoGenome Project. He is an Honorary Professor of the Second Military Medical University (Shanghai, China) and the University of Tuebingen (Germany) and elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the German Academy of Natural Scientists “Leopoldina” and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).
Among numerous other honors and awards, Professor Ullrich received the Robert Koch Prize the Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award of the American Association of Cancer Research and the King Faisal Prize of Medicine. Because of his major contributions to Science he has been appointed to advisory boards of internationally renowned institutions such as the Wistar Institute (USA), the Biomedicum (Finland), the Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine (Germany) and the International Advisory Council of the EDB (Singapore). His scientific work has been published in more than 500 simple-articles in international journals and with over 58,000 citations he is one of the ten most cited scientists over the past 25 years worldwide.
Professor Ullrich has been a leader in international Biotechnology development with activities stretching from Germany, to the USA, Singapore and Australia. He is co-founder of three Biotech companies – SUGEN Inc. (USA), Axxima Pharmaceuticals AG (Germany), U3 Pharma AG (Germany) and Kinaxo (Germany). In addition he has served on numerous Boards of Directors and Science Advisory Boards of Biotech companies including SUGEN, Inc. (USA), BioImage (Denmark), Bionomics (Australia), Cryptome Pharmaceuticals (Australia) and S*Bio (Singapore) and pharmaceutical companies (Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany).
Since 2000 he is a Biotech Advisor of the Economic Development Board of the Singapore Government and its Biotech Investment organization, BioOneCapital. Moreover, he is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Bavarian Biotech Management Company BioM. In 2001 Time Magazine Europe has named Professor Ullrich as one of 25 European “tech leaders who are changing how we work, live and play”.
Websites: http://www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/ and http://www.mpg.de/english/portal/index.html
Dr. Nicole Urban
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), Seattle, WA, USA
Dr. Urban has been working to reduce mortality from breast and ovarian cancer for over 15 years, studying ways to improve the use, performance and efficacy of breast and ovarian cancer screening tools including mammography and the blood test CA125. She is particularly interested in the discovery, development and validation of novel markers detectable in serum, for use in cancer risk assessment and screening. She is best known for her evaluation of candidate serum markers for ovarian cancer, including HE4 and Mesothelin, and her analysis of the cost-effectiveness of screening for ovarian cancer.
Dr. Urban earned her BA from Simmons College in 1970, and in 1973 earned a MS in Biostatistics followed by a ScD in 1978 in Health Services and Biostatistics, both from the Harvard School of Public Health. She joined the University of Washington in 1978 where she is Professor of Health Services Research, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 1984 where she heads the Gynecologic Cancer Research Program and is a Member of the Molecular Diagnostics Program in the Public Health Sciences Division. In 1999 she was awarded a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Ovarian Cancer by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to conduct translational research that is now in its eighth year of funding. In 2002 she was awarded a Center for the Evaluation of Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research.
Website: http://www.fhcrc.org/
Yosef Yarden, Ph.D
Professor, Department of Biological Regulation, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Yosef Yarden is professor in the Department of Biological Regulation at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. He received his BSc at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and his Ph.D at the Weizmann Institute. He trained at Genetech Inc. and in the Whitehead Institute (MIT) before establishing his own laboratory at the Weizmann Institute. Dr. Yarden's research career has been devoted to understanding the role of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) in human cancer. He has been involved in many crucial developments in this field, including purification and molecular cloning of the first RTKs, namely the EGF-receptor, c-Kit, PDGF-receptor and several receptors for FGFs. In addition, he discovered the neuregulin family of growth factors. On the functional aspect of RTKs, he discovered the universal initiating step of signaling, namely the process of receptor dimerization. In this context, Yarden resolved the role of HER2 in tumor development as a shared herterodimerizing subunit of other receptors. He also discovered the last step in RTK signaling, namely the process leading to receptor ubiquitinylation and sorting for degradation in lysosomes. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the H. Dudley Wright Research Award in Biomembranes, the Somech Sachs Prize in Chemistry, the Andre Lwoff Prize, the Lombroso Award for Cancer Research, the Michael Bruno Prize, the Teva Founders' Prize, and the MERIT Award of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Currently, Dr. Yarden is the Dean of the Feinberg Graduate School. In the past he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Director of the M.D. Moross Cancer Research Institute, and Dean of the Faculty of Biology.
Website: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biological_Regulation/
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