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16th Annual Recipient
Peter K. Vogt, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Molecular & Experimental Medicine
The Scripps Research Institute
La Jolla, CA
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Dr. Vogt delivered his award lecture titled
PI3K - From Simplicity to Complexity and Back, at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C. The award ceremony and lecture was held on Monday, April 8, 2013. Visit the
AACR Annual Meeting 2013 page for more information on the Annual Meeting.
The Award and Lecture
The prestigious Pezcoller Foundation–AACR International Award for Cancer Research was established in 1997 to annually recognize a scientist of international renown:
- who has made a major scientific discovery in basic cancer research OR who has made significant contributions to translational cancer research;
- who continues to be active in cancer research and has a record of recent, noteworthy publications; and
- whose ongoing work holds promise for continued substantive contributions to progress in the field of cancer.
The award is intended to honor an individual scientist. However, more than one scientist may be co-nominated and selected to share the award when their investigations are closely related in subject matter and have resulted in work that is worthy of the award.
The award consists of an unrestricted grant of €75,000, commemorative plaque, and full support to the winner and a guest to attend the AACR Annual Meeting. The winner of the 16th Annual Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research gave a 50-minute award lecture at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, DC, U.S.A. (April 6-10, 2013).
Eligibility
- Eligible candidates are cancer researchers affiliated with institutions in academia, industry, or government that are involved in cancer research, cancer medicine, or cancer-related biomedical science anywhere in the world.
- Institutions or organizations are not eligible for the award.
- Receipt of other major awards does not preclude a candidate from eligibility for the award.
- No regard shall be given to race, gender, nationality, geographic location, or religious or political views.
Nomination Procedure and Instructions
Nominations are closed.
Nominations may be made by any scientist, whether an AACR member or nonmember, who is now or has been affiliated with any institution involved in cancer research, cancer medicine, or cancer-related biomedical science. Candidates may not nominate themselves.
Selection
Candidates for the award will be considered by a prestigious international Selection Committee of renowned cancer leaders appointed by the president of the AACR in consultation with the Council of the Pezcoller Foundation. The committee will consider all nominations as they have been submitted; the committee may not combine submitted nominations, add a new candidate to a submitted nomination, or otherwise make alterations to the submitted nominations. After careful deliberations by the committee, its recommendations will be forwarded to the Executive Committee of the AACR and the Council of the Pezcoller Foundation for final consideration and determination.
Selection of the award winner will be made on the basis of the candidate's scientific accomplishments. No regard will be given to race, gender, nationality, or religious or political view.
Responsibilities of the Award Recipient
The winner will also present the Eighth Annual Stanley J. Korsmeyer Lecturein Padua, Italy, just prior to the official award ceremony in Trento, Italy, in May 2013. Remarks to be made during the ceremony must be delivered to the Pezcoller Foundation at least four weeks prior to allow sufficient time for translation into Italian. Should the winner be unable to participate in either event, the award must be forfeited and may be presented instead to the alternate.
In the rare event that there are dual winners of the award, the cash award will be shared equally between them, and the AACR Executive Committee will determine which of the two co-recipients will present the Pezcoller-AACR Award Lecture at the AACR Annual Meeting.
The Stanley J. Korsmeyer Lecture
This lectureship has been created through the Pezcoller Foundation, the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine, and the AACR to honor the late Dr. Stanley J. Korsmeyer's outstanding and significant contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms that regulate programmed cell death and survival.
Dr. Korsmeyer’s numerous accomplishments in the cancer field led to his being named the recipient of the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research in 2004. He subsequently presented a lecture at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine – his last European lecture before his untimely death from cancer in 2005.
Through this lectureship, the Foundation, the Institute and the AACR wish to remember Dr. Korsmeyer in the manner he would have liked best – with the presentation of significant science and discussion among colleagues in cancer research. The lecture will be presented annually by the recipient of the Pezcoller-AACR Award, and will be delivered each year in May at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine in Padua, Italy.
The Pezcoller Foundation was established in 1980 by Professor Alessio Pezcoller, a dedicated Italian surgeon who made important contributions to medicine during his career and who, through his foresight, vision, and generous gift in support of the formation of the foundation, stimulated others to join this effort in sustaining the work of the foundation. Professor Pezcoller has inspired scientists around the world to make significant advances in cancer research. In addition to sponsoring this prestigious award, the foundation also sponsors a series of symposia, publishes a journal, and supports awards for early-career scientists from Europe who have submitted highly rated abstracts for presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting.
Questions?
Linda Stokes, Program Associate
awards@aacr.org
American Association for Cancer Research
17th Floor, 615 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-4404
(215) 446-7128
SPOTLIGHT
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15th Annual Recipient
Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D.
Founding Member
MIT Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Cambridge, MA
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Dr. Robert A. Weinberg (left) delivered his award lecture titled Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition, Cancer Stem Cells and Metastasis during the AACR Annual Meeting 2012 in Chicago, IL. Dr. Weinberg received his award from Dr. Giuseppe Bernardi, president emeritus, Pezcoller Foundation.
View the webcast of Dr. Weinberg's 2012 Award Lecure.
Dr. Robert A. Weinberg is honored for his outstanding contributions to the field of molecular oncology.
Dr. Weinberg’s single most important discovery demonstrated for the first time in a PNAS paper in 1979 that the neoplastic behavior of cancer cells can be traced to sequences present in their DNA. This research led to the discovery of somatic mutations that are responsible for the formation of these cancer-causing DNA sequences, initially involving the RAS oncogenes present in about 25 percent of human tumors.
In ongoing research, the Weinberg laboratory is focusing on cancer progression characterizing the role of the Twist, Goosecoid and FOXC2 transcription factors in inducing an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in carcinoma cells. This led to the demonstration that Twist expression by mouse mammary carcinoma cells is critical to their metastatic properties. Most recently, the laboratory has demonstrated that cells forced through an EMT have many of the properties of epithelial stem cells.
Dr. Weinberg’s seminal discoveries form a critical basis for the development of novel, targeted cancer therapies and personalized strategies to battle this deadly disease. More recently, his group has succeeded in creating the first genetically defined human cancer cells. He is particularly interested in applying this knowledge to improve the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
Dr. Weinberg received his Ph.D. in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Weinberg is the founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He currently serves as director of the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology and professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Weinberg is the author or editor of six books and more than 390 articles. He has written a comprehensive cancer textbook entitled “The Biology of Cancer.” His other books, intended for a lay audience, are “One Renegade Cell,” “Racing to the Beginning of the Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer,” and “Genes and the Biology of Cancer,” co-authored with Dr. Harold E. Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health and current director of the National Cancer Institute. He is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Institute of Medicine.