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American Cancer Society Nobel Laureates

Two of the three scientists receiving the 2011 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology are former American Cancer Society research grantees, bringing the number of Nobel Laureates among the Society’s funded researchers to 46.

Dr. Bruce A Beutler, professor of genetics and immunology at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California was awarded a two-year project grant in January 1992 for $120,000 to study TNF synthesis in cancer. Dr. Ralph M. Steinman of Rockefeller University was awarded a one-year Research Opportunity Grant in 1999 for $75,000 to study dendritic cells and mediated immunization. Dr. Steinman died from pancreatic cancer on Sept. 30, just three days before the Nobel Committee’s announcement.

Dr. Beutler was awarded along with Jules Hoffmann, who headed a laboratory in Strasbourg, France, for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity. In 1998, six years after receiving his American Cancer Society grant, Dr. Beutler and his colleagues helped discover receptor proteins that can recognize bacteria and other microorganisms as they enter the body, and activate the first line of defense in the immune system, known as innate immunity. The discoveries of Hoffmann and Beutler triggered extensive research in innate immunity, which has enabled the development of improved vaccines against infectious diseases. In the long term their findings could yield better treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and chronic inflammatory diseases. In fact, there are now many agents being studied for use in cancer therapy because of their stimulation of immune cells via these receptors.

Dr. Steinman was recognized for work in the 1970s, when he discovered a new cell type that he called the dendritic cell, which he thought could be important in the immune system. His research, which was initially met with skepticism, showed that the actions of dendritic cells resulted in specific responses of T cells, a cell type that has a key role in adaptive immunity and develops an immunologic memory against many different substances. In 2010, the FDA approved the first therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer, Provenge, a vaccine that is based upon the principles of immunity developed by the study of dendritic cells.

It is also now apparent that there is an important regulation of anti-cancer immune responses that involves pathways connecting the receptors and responses studies by Dr. Beutler and the dendritic cells studied by Dr. Steinman. Studies initiated on these seemingly disparate aspects of the immune system have converged to provide new and exciting possibilities for fighting cancer.

See also the ACS Expert Voice write up on why is their work important, and what does it have to do with the fight against cancer? Click here.

The American Cancer Society is justly proud of the 46 investigators who were supported before they went on to win the Nobel Prize, considered the highest accolade any scientist can receive. This is a tribute to the Society’s Research program and the strength of its peer-review process.

2011 Bruce Beutler, Ph.D.	2011 Ralph Steinman, Ph.D.
2009 Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D.	2009 Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D.	2007 Mario R. Capecchi, PhD
2007 Oliver Smithies, PhD	2006 Roger D Kornberg, Ph.D	2006 Craig C. Mello, PhD
2004 Aaron Ciechanover, MD	2004 Avram Hershko, MD, PhD	2004 Irwin A. Rose, PhD
2001 Leland Hartwell, PhD Discovered key regulators of the cell cycle.	1999 Günter Blobel, MD, PhD Discovered how proteins find their proper location in the cell.	1995 Edward B. Lewis, PhD Found evidence that certain patterns in development apply to human cancers.
1994 Alfred Gilman, MD, PhD Helped to understand how cells talk to one another.	1993 Phillip A. Sharp, PhD Showed that readable regions on DNA are separated by some that cannot be read.	1990 E. Donnall Thomas, MD Pioneered bone marrow transplantation.
1989 Sidney Altman, PhD Discovered that RNA can sometimes act as an enzyme.	1989 Thomas R. Cech, PhD Found evidence that RNA may have enzymatic properties in cells.	1989 J. Michael Bishop, MD Discovered latent cancer genes, oncogenes, in normal cells.
1989 Harold E. Varmus, MD Showed that defects in normal genes can cause cancer.	1987 Susumu Tonegawa, PhD Discovered how antibodies are made by cells of the immune system.	1986 Stanley Cohen, PhD Showed that some growth factors influence cancer development.
1980 Paul Berg, PhD Was the first to create a recombinant DNA molecule.	1980 Walter Gilbert, MD Developed a method important for sequencing DNA.	1980 Baruj Benacerraf, MD Contributed to the understanding of the genetic basis of immunology.
1978 Daniel Nathans, MD Discovered enzymes that modify DNA, facilitating the study of genes.	1978 Hamilton O. Smith, MD Discovered DNA splicing enzymes important for genetic engineering	1975 Renato Dulbecco, MD Found that certain animal cancer viruses can insert themselves into a cell's DNA.
1975 Howard M. Temin, PhD Discovered the reverse transcriptase that translates RNA into DNA.	1975 David Baltimore, PhD Found that some RNA viruses can transfere their information to DNA.	1972 Christian B. Anfinsen, PhD. Discovered how enzymes assume their active shapes within the living cell.
1969 Salvador E. Luria, MD Did important work on phages to provide basic knowledge of viruses.	1969 Max Delbruck, PhD Showed how DNA replicates itself and the genetic structure of viruses.	1968 Robert Holley, PhD Determined the structure of transfer RNA, which is important in protein synthesis.
1968 Marshall Nirenberg, PhD Interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.	1966 Charles B. Huggins, MD Demonstrated hormonal dependence of breast and prostate cancer cells.	1966 Francis P. Rous, MD Discovered that cancer can be induced by injecting a tumor extract.
1965 Robert Burns Woodward, PhD Determined how the body uses small compounds to build organic molecules for life’s functions.	1962 James D. Watson, PhD Discovered the double helix structure of DNA.	1959 Severo Ochoa, MD Discovered RNA polymerase, an enzyme that synthesizes RNA.
1958 Edward L Tatum, PhD Reported that mutations can alter nutritional requirements of cells.	1958 George W. Beadle, PhD Provided evidence that for every enzyme there is one gene.	1953 Fritz Lipmann, MD, PhD Discovered an enzyme that helps to convert food into energy.
1946 Wendell M. Stanley, PhD Crystallized viruses, thus demonstrating their structure.	1946 Hermann Joseph Muller, PhD Discovered that x-ray irradiation can produce cell mutations.

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American Cancer Society Nobel Laureates