Three Dana-Farber faculty members elected as Fellows of The American Association for Cancer Research

Posted date

 

Three Dana-Farber faculty members are among the 19 international scientists elected today to the prestigious Fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy.

The mission of the AACR Academy is to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose scientific contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer. Fellows of the AACR Academy serve as a global brain trust in the cancer field, helping to advance the mission of the AACR to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research.

The members of the 2020 class of Fellows of the AACR Academy from Dana-Farber are:

Myles A. Brown, MD

Emil Frei III Professor of Medicine; Director, Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics

For elucidating the role of steroid hormones and their receptors in promoting the onset and progression of various hormone-dependent malignancies and for the discovery of regulatory complex components such as the p160 class of transcriptional co-activators that facilitate the epigenetic regulation of steroid receptor activity.

Alan D. D'Andrea, MD

Director, Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers; Director of the Center for DNA Damage and Repair, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Alvan T. and Viola D. Fuller American Cancer Society Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School

For pivotal contributions to the field of DNA damage and repair that have defined the specific defects responsible for the development of Fanconi anemia and for elucidating the role of nuclear protein complexes on chromatin remodeling, cell cycle checkpoints, and DNA repair.

Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

For dissecting the role of intratumor heterogeneity in breast cancer and metastatic disease to develop risk assessment and personalized cancer therapy models and for extensively characterizing the metastatic potential of polyclonal tumors compared to monoclonal tumors.

All Fellows are nominated and elected through an annual peer review process conducted by existing Fellows of the AACR Academy and ratified by the AACR Academy Steering Committee and AACR Executive Committee. This process involves a rigorous assessment of each candidate’s scientific accomplishments in cancer research and cancer-related sciences. Only individuals whose work has had a significant and enduring impact on cancer research are considered for election and induction into the AACR Academy.

“This year’s collection of elected Fellows of the AACR Academy continues the AACR’s rich tradition of recognizing the most significant contributors to cancer research,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “The 2020 class consists of 19 trailblazing pioneers in various scientific areas who have accelerated the pace of progress against cancer. We are honored to have them join our 212 existing Fellows and look forward to celebrating their scientific accomplishments.”


Media Contacts

If you are a journalist and have a question about this story, please call 617-632-4090 and ask to speak to a member of the media team, or email media@dfci.harvard.edu.

The Media Team cannot respond to patient inquiries. For more information, please see Contact Us.