May 13, 2008
Three Cancer Research Institute Scientists Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Election to the National Academy of Sciences--the body elite scientific experts whose mission is to address critical national issues and advise the U.S. government and public on scientific matters--is considered one of the top honors for U.S. scientists. CRI Scientific Advisory Council member Anjana Rao, Ph.D., a professor of pathology at the Harvard Medical School and a senior investigator at the Immune Disease Institute, both in Boston, MA, was named this past April as one of 72 newly elected members to receive this prestigious honor. Dr. Rao is a former CRI postdoctoral fellow (1981-1983) who now serves on the Institute's Scientific Advisory Council (1999 to present) as a member of its Postdoctoral Fellowship Review Committee. She has also sponsored nine CRI-funded postdoctoral fellows.
Dr. Rao holds a master of science in physics degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University. She carried out her CRI-funded postdoctoral laboratory training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. There, she worked under the sponsorship of Dr. Harvey Cantor, the Baruj Benacerraf Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, and who is also a member of CRI's Scientific Advisory Council and the National Academy of Sciences.
Two other CRI-affiliated researchers were elected this year to the Academy:
- Michael J. Bevan, Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, department of immunology, University of Washington in Seattle, WA. Dr. Bevan will receive next month the 2008 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Immunology and Tumor Immunology for his discovery of cross-presentation and positive selection of T cells. His work has provided a scientific rationale for the development of much of the cancer vaccine field and for our understanding of how the host cellular immune system detects tumor antigens and self-proteins.
- Bruce D. Beutler, Ph.D., professor and chair, department of genetics, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. Dr. Beuter is the recipient of the 2006 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Immunology and Tumor Immunology for his many contributions to our understanding of the events leading to the initiation of the innate immune response. His elucidation of the signaling molecules and key receptor system used by cells of the innate immune system, as well as his clarification the innate immune system’s relationship to the adaptive immune system have opened up many new lines of investigation into how the immune system can be mobilized to fight infectious diseases and cancer. Dr. Beutler has also sponsored three CRI-funded postdoctoral fellows.
The Cancer Research Institute congratulates Drs. Rao, Bevan, and Beutler on this outstanding honor.
Contact:
Brian Brewer, Director of Communications
Cancer Research Institute
bbrewer@cancerresearch.org
(212) 688-7515, ext. 242