NCI Grantees Receive Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences

The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences recognizes “excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life.” The inaugural set of prizes, awarded in February 2013 by a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to advancing breakthrough research, are backed by well-known personalities such as Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of a personal genomics and biotech company 23andMe; Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg  and his wife, Priscilla Chan; Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner; and  Art Levinson, chairman of Apple and Genentech. The 11 recipients will each receive $3 million for their outstanding work in the field of science; eight of them have received NCI grants to further their research: David Botstein Ph.D., director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and the Anthony B. Evnin professor of genomics at Princeton University, was recognized for linkage mapping of Mendelian disease in humans using variations in a DNA sequence. Lewis C. Cantley, Ph.D., director of the Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, was awarded for his discovery of PI 3-Kinase and its role in cancer metabolism. His research discovered that human cancers frequently have mutations in PI3K and he has worked to identify new treatments for cancers that result from defects in this pathway. Titia de Lange Ph.D., head of the Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics, and director o...
Source: NCI Benchmarks - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Scientist Spotlight award Source Type: news