
Lewis C. Cantley, PhD
Contact Information
Office Phone Number
Biography
Lewis C. Cantley, PhD
Dr. Lew Cantley is a leader in the field of cancer signaling and metabolism. His lab and the lab of Tom Roberts discovered and characterized the PI3 kinase pathway and its role in cancer development and progression. Cantley’s lab has done groundbreaking work on deciphering protein kinase signaling pathways. More recently, his lab has revealed the substrate specificity of the human Serine/Threonine and Tyrosine kinome. Lew has also founded several companies including Agios Pharmaceuticals.
Lew started his lab at Harvard (1978-1985), moved to Tufts University Medical Center (1985-1992) and then was at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for 20 years (1992-2012) before moving to Weill Cornell. He was Director of the Cancer Center at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as well as the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell/New York Presbyterian Hospital. In 2022, he returned to Boston to join Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.
For his contributions to science, Lew has received many prestigious awards including the Canada Gairdner Award, the Wolf Prize, the Breakthrough Prize and the Pezcoller/AACR International Award for Cancer Research. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001.
Researcher
Physician
Clinical Interests
PI3K, PTEN
Medical School
- Cornell University, Biophysical Chemistry
Recent Awards
- 2020: Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research
- 2020: National Academy of Inventors
- 2019: Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
- 2017: OncLive Giants of Cancer Care
- 2016: The Hope Funds Award of Excellence in Basic Science
- 2016: Wolf Prize in Medicine
- 2015: AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship
- 2015: The Association of American Cancer Institutes Distinguished Scientist Award
- 2015: Elected to European life sciences academy EMBO
- 2015: Gairdner Award
- 2015: Ross Prize
- 2014: National Academy of Medicine
- 2014: Fellow of the AACR Academy
- 2013: H.C. Jacobaeus Prize, Stockholm
- 2011: Pasarow Award for Cancer Research
- 2009: Rolf Luft Award for Diabetes and Endocrinology Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
- 2005: Pezcoller/AACR International Award for Cancer Research
- 2002: Caledonian Prize, Royal Society of Edinburgh
- 2001: National Academy of Sciences
- 2000: Heinrich Wieland Preis for Lipid Research, Munich, Germany
- 1999: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1998: ASBMB Avanti Award for Lipid Re
Research
Research Departments
Locations

Longwood Center
450 Brookline Avenue Longwood Center LC-5212 Boston, MA 02215Longwood Center
