Innovators in Discovery
Lisa M. Coussens, PhD, FAACR, is a professor and chair of the Cell, Developmental, and Cancer Biology Department. Her laboratory research focuses on understanding how the immune system, and, specifically, chronic inflammation, is associated with solid tumor development.
The world-renowned expert in cancer immunology is developing vaccines for pancreatic cancer and other cancer types, Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, FAACR, is mentoring a new generation of cancer immunology researchers and clinicians, and advising the president of the United States on ways to accelerate progress against cancer.
Combing through the genome-wide data from the 91 high-risk prostate cancer families, John D. Carpten, PhD, FAACR, and his colleagues identified a region on chromosome 1 as a major prostate cancer susceptibility locus. The findings, published in Science in 1996, marked the first study to identify genetic variants associated with a predisposition to develop prostate cancer.
Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD, is a trailblazing researcher who studies factors that can lead to racial and ethnic health disparities among Hispanic populations and has spearheaded a program to encourage all eligible residents of Puerto Rico to receive regular colon cancer screenings.
Renowned physician-scientist Carl H. June, MD, FAACR, studied bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapies for people with HIV early in his career. Those experiences were followed by the dramatic development of CAR T-cell therapies for treating certain blood cancers.
Since the 1990s, Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, FAACR has been a key contributor to the field of immunotherapy, seeing potential where many saw a dead end.
The groundbreaking research of Susan Band Horwitz, PhD, FAACR, focused on discovering the properties of Taxol (paclitaxel) and led to an effective cancer treatment.
Charles L. Sawyers, MD, FAACR, co-developed Gleevec, among the first targeted cancer therapies, and is set on understanding prostate cancer drug resistance.
David A. Tuveson, MD, PhD, FAACR, has centered his clinical and research work on pancreatic cancer, a disease that is frustratingly resistant to treatment.
Anna D. Barker, PhD, FAACR, does not shy away from large projects undertaken to advance cancer science. Cancer first entered Dr. Barker’s world as a child, watching her grandparents, parents, and sister face cancer diagnoses.