The Society is justly proud of the 44 investigators we supported before they went on to win the Nobel Prize, considered the highest accolade any scientist can receive. This is a tribute to the American Cancer Society's Research Program and the strength of its peer-review process. These scientists range from James Watson, PhD, whose discovery with Francis Crick, MD, of the structure of DNA was the cornerstone of modern molecular biology to E. Donnall Thomas, MD, the father of bone marrow transplantation. Two of the most recent Society-supported grantees to be awarded the Nobel Prize (2009) are Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D. and Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D. Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D. of the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass, was recognized for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D., of Yale University was recognized along with two other researchers for for describing the ribosome and its function.
2009
Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D.
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2009
Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D.
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2007
Mario R. Capecchi, PhD
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2007
Oliver Smithies, PhD
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2006
Roger D Kornberg, Ph.D
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2006
Craig C. Mello, PhD
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2004
Aaron Ciechanover, MD
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2004
Avram Hershko, MD, PhD
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2004
Irwin A. Rose, PhD
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2001
Leland Hartwell, PhD
Discovered key regulators of the cell cycle.
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1999
Günter Blobel, MD, PhD
Discovered how proteins find their proper location in the cell.
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1995
Edward B. Lewis, PhD
Found evidence that certain patterns in development apply to human cancers.
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1994
Alfred Gilman, MD, PhD
Helped to understand how cells talk to one another.
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1993
Phillip A. Sharp, PhD
Showed that readable regions on DNA are separated by some that cannot
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1990
E. Donnall Thomas, MD
Pioneered bone marrow transplantation.
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1989
Sidney Altman, PhD
Discovered that RNA can sometimes act as an enzyme.
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1989
Thomas R. Cech, PhD
Found evidence that RNA may have enzymatic properties in cells.
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1989
J. Michael Bishop, MD
Discovered latent cancer genes, oncogenes, in normal cells.
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1989
Harold E. Varmus, MD
Showed that defects in normal genes can cause cancer.
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1987
Susumu Tonegawa, PhD
Discovered how antibodies are made by cells of the immune system.
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1986
Stanley Cohen, PhD
Showed that some growth factors influence cancer development.
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1980
Paul Berg, PhD
Was the first to create a recombinant DNA molecule.
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1980
Walter Gilbert, MD
Developed a method important for sequencing DNA.
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1980
Baruj Benacerraf, MD
Contributed to the understanding of the genetic basis of immunology.
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1978
Daniel Nathans, MD
Discovered enzymes that modify DNA, facilitating the study of genes.
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1978
Hamilton O. Smith, MD
Discovered DNA splicing enzymes important for genetic engineering
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1975
Renato Dulbecco, MD
Found that certain animal cancer viruses can insert themselves into
a cell's DNA.
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1975
Howard M. Temin, PhD
Discovered the reverse transcriptase that translates RNA into DNA.
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1975
David Baltimore, PhD
Found that some RNA viruses can transfere their information to DNA.
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1972
Christian B. Anfinsen, PhD.
Discovered how enzymes assume their active shapes within the living cell.
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1969
Salvador E. Luria, MD
Did important work on phages to provide basic knowledge of viruses.
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1969
Max Delbruck, PhD
Showed how DNA replicates itself and the genetic structure of viruses.
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1968
Robert Holley, PhD
Determined the structure of transfer RNA, which is important in protein synthesis.
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1968
Marshall Nirenberg, PhD
Interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.
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1966
Charles B. Huggins, MD
Demonstrated hormonal dependence of breast and prostate cancer cells.
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1966
Francis P. Rous, MD
Discovered that cancer can be induced by injecting a tumor extract.
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1965
Robert Burns Woodward, PhD
Determined how the body uses small compounds to build organic molecules for life’s functions.
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1962
James D. Watson, PhD
Discovered the double helix structure of DNA.
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1959
Severo Ochoa, MD
Discovered RNA polymerase, an enzyme that synthesizes RNA.
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1958
Edward L Tatum, PhD
Reported that mutations can alter nutritional requirements of cells.
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1958
George W. Beadle, PhD
Provided evidence that for every enzyme there is one gene.
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1953
Fritz Lipmann, MD, PhD
Discovered an enzyme that helps to convert food into energy.
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1946
Wendell M. Stanley, PhD
Crystallized viruses, thus demonstrating their structure.
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1946
Hermann Joseph Muller, PhD
Discovered that x-ray irradiation can produce cell mutations.
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