American Cancer Society Names Three Research Professors; Researchers Receive $400,000 Five-Year Grants

American Cancer Society
Monday, 5 February 2001

The American Cancer Society, the nation's leading voluntary health organization and the largest non-government funder of scientific cancer research, has designated three outstanding scientists as American Cancer Society Research Professors. Effective January 1, 2001, Joan Brugge, PhD, Harvard Medical School; Douglas Hanahan, PhD, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); and Leona Samson, PhD, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) assumed their new Society professorships.

The Research Professorship, the Society's most prestigious research award, is given to outstanding cancer researchers who have contributed significantly to a particular discipline within a field of cancer research. Each five-year $400,000 grant allows professors to concentrate their specific area of scientific investigation by relieving them of major administrative and/or teaching responsibilities. Each grant is renewable for one additional five-year term.

Never before in the Society's 87-year history have more than two Research Professors been named at the same time. However, according to the organization's chief medical officer, the three candidates so impressed the members of the Society's volunteer Council for Extramural Grants that it was agreed all should receive the designation. "This year, we took the unprecedented step of funding three American Cancer Society Research Professors because we felt the pioneering research that Drs. Brugge, Hanahan, and Samson were doing will have a dramatic effect on our understanding of cancer," said Harmon J. Eyre, MD, American Cancer Society Executive Vice President for Research and Cancer Control. "This knowledge will lead, we hope, to new treatments for cancer and a better life for cancer patients."

Dr. Brugge, professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School, is a leading investigator in the field of signal transduction -- how cells respond to signals in their environment. As an American Cancer Society Professor, she will continue her work on integrin proteins (cell surface proteins that cause cells to stick to each other and to substances in their environment) and the changes that occur when normal cells become malignant. In addition, she will apply novel genetic approaches to identify regulators of mammary tumor cell proliferation and invasion in the hope of identifying potential targets for breast cancer therapy.

A Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Colorado in 1979, Dr. Brugge held an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, as well as several ACS research grants from 1984-1989. She also spent five years as senior vice president for biology research at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Hanahan, professor of biochemistry at UCSF, is a pioneer in the development of mouse models for studying pancreatic, skin and cervical cancer. He was the first scientist to develop tissue-specific transgenes. He has created mouse models for pancreatic, skin, and cervical cancer by inserting specific cancer-causing genes into their eggs or sperm so that the transgenes are passed on from generation to generation. He uses mouse models to understand the important mechanisms related to human cancer and to develop new therapeutic targets by which to approach human disease.

An authority in the field of angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels in tumors), Dr. Hanahan is assessing new angiogenesis-inhibitor drugs for their ability to prevent cancer from developing in these cancer-prone mice. This, in turn, may facilitate the identification of new therapies for use in humans.

Dr. Samson, professor of toxicology at HSPH, is an internationally recognized leader in the field of toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic effects of DNA-damaging agents. As a postdoctoral fellow she discovered the adaptive response of the bacterium E. coli to alkylating agents. This discovery laid the groundwork for understanding the repair of alkylation damage in all organisms, damage caused by a chemical addition of long chains of carbon atoms to the DNA that results in subsequent mutation or destruction of the DNA molecule.

She recently observed that the activities of about 400 genes are altered when yeast cells are exposed to these DNA-damaging agents. Since alkylating agents represent the largest group of environmental chemical mutagens and are widely used as anticancer drugs, sorting out this massive genetic response is of great importance to cancer research and treatment. Dr. Samson held an ACS Faculty Research Award at HSPH from 1987-1991, and has held several ACS research grants over the years.

In addition, the American Cancer Society has renewed the Research Professorships for Inder M. Verma, PhD, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Michael H. Wigler, PhD, of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

The appointments of Drs. Brugge, Hanahan, and Samson, as well as the reappointments of Drs. Verma and Wigler bring to 20 the total number of active American Cancer Society Research Professors.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service.

For more information, or to contact American Cancer Society, see their website at: www.cancer.org