Two Damon Runyon alumni have been awarded the 2019 Lasker Awards, which “honor innovations that have advanced knowledge, treatment, or prevention of disease,” and are considered to be one of the highest international honors in medical research. H. Michael Shepard, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ’78-’80), shares the prize for his contribution to the discovery of the breast cancer treatment Herceptin. Jacques F.A.P. Miller, PhD (Damon Runyon Grantee ’73-’75), shares the award for pioneering immunology research that has led to many new therapeutic approaches. 

CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cell immunotherapy has generated much excitement in the last two years— saving the lives of some blood cancer patients when other treatments have failed. Developing CAR T therapies for solid tumors has been far more challenging. That could be changing. Marcela V. Maus, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ’17-’20), and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital have turned CAR T cells into virtual armored vehicles, capable of launching deadly strikes against glioblastoma brain tumors.

Nicholas Arpaia, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ’13–’16), and Tal Danino, PhD, at Columbia University, have genetically programmed E. Coli bacteria to uncloak tumor cells and activate the immune system to attack them. The innovative approach eliminated tumors and distant metastases in mice and may lead to therapies that combat cancer more effectively in patients, without side effects.

Jason M. Sheltzer, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ’18 – ‘20), and Christopher Jewell, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ’14 – ’18), have received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government to researchers at the beginning their independent research careers, who show exceptional promise for leadership in science and technology.

Emily P. Balskus, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ’14 – ’16), received the Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists in Chemistry, the largest unrestricted scientific prize ($250,000) offered to the most promising, faculty-level scientific researchers in the United States. Dr. Balskus, a chemical biologist at Harvard University, is being recognized for her “transformative work identifying the novel chemistry of the gut microbiome and deciphering its role in human health and disease.”

Adrienne A. Boire, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ’17-’20), and Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ’16-’19), both of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, each received a 2019 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research. Recipients receive $200,000 per year for up to three years and  opportunities to present their work to scientific and business audiences, helping to bridge the gap between the academic and business communities. 

The five-year survival rate for leukemia has almost doubled in the past 45 years. Still, about 20 percent of children and more than half of adults with leukemia fail to respond to treatment or form drug resistance and eventually succumb to the disease. New findings published in the journal Cancer Cell from Former Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Alejandro Gutierrez, MD, and his colleagues at Boston Children’s Hospital offer hope to these vulnerable leukemia patients. 

Five Damon Runyon alumnae were elected to the National Academy of Sciences (the science “Hall of Fame”), one of the highest honors given to a U.S. scientist. This membership recognizes their distinguished and continuing achievements in biomedical research. The total number of Damon Runyon scientists who are members of the National Academy of Sciences is now 79. This is a milestone year with women comprising 40 percent of the 100 newly elected members and 25 foreign associates, the most ever elected in any one year since the Academy was established in 1863.

Former Damon Runyon Fellow and Board Member Elaine V. Fuchs, PhD, and Former Fellow and Nobel Laureate James E. Rothman, PhD, have been elected foreign members of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom. In July, they will travel to London to sign the book that includes esteemed members such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking.

Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Joshua Brody, MD, and his colleagues at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report a promising new cancer vaccine that activates the immune system to fight tumors throughout the body. This exciting new reserach was published in Nature Medicine.