Established etiologic link between asbestos and cancer – Irving Selikoff

Initiated use of a sequential combination regimen of chemotherapy for adjuvant treatment of ovarian cancer - Greenspan & Feiber

Discovered that dimethyl sulfoxide could induce cancer cells to progress or differentiate to a normal pattern of development – Charlotte Friend

Discovered and cloned erbB2 as an amplified gene in a human breast carcinoma. The technology involved in this discovery is utlilized for diagnosing and treating breast cancer patients with erbB2/HER2 amplified tumors – Stuart Aaronson

Distinguished ROC1/Rbx1 RING finger protein as an indispensable component of the SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase complex required for directing protein degradation – Zhen-Qiang Pan

Noted role for p53 in regulating constitutive levels of expression of the gene encoding the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 - James Manfredi

Identified differential requirement for the C-terminal domain of p53 in sequence-specific DNA binding for some, but not all, genomic response elements – James Manfredi

Molecularly cloned HGF and showed that HGF was the ligand for met receptor, a receptor activated by various mechanisms as an oncogene in human tumors – Stuart Aaronson

Described the identification of the phosphatase that inactivates Chk1, a protein kinase, and allows cells to resume cycling – Matthew O'Connell

Identified a Wnt autocrine transforming mechanism in human tumor cells for the first time and in breast and ovarian cancer cells specifically – Stuart Aaronson

Pinpointed the CUL7 E3 ubiquitin ligase complex that is indispensible for vertebrate growth – Zhen-Qiang Pan

Discovered that conjugation of Nedd8 molecule to the cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligases activates E3's catalytic activity to form polyubiquitin chains that serve as a predominant signal for protein degradation – Zhen-Qiang Pan

Revealed that neuroblastoma in older children and adolescents harboring deletions within a chromatin-remodeling gene called ATRX are sensitive to EZH2 inhibitor targeted therapy – Emily Bernstein

Described the first mechanism by which MDM2, the negative regulator of p53, directly disrupts mitochondrial metabolism to promote DNA damage and cell death – Jerry Edward Chipuk

Demonstrated that inhibitor of protein arginine methylation preferentially kills splicing factor (SF)-mutant cells – Ernesto Guccione

Discovered that beta-catenin activation promotes immune escape and resistance to anti-PD-1 immunotherpay in hepatecellular carcinoma – Amaia Lujambio

Discovered that fasting reducing inflammation and improved chronic inflammatory diseases – Miriam Merad

Uncovered a kinase-phosphatase switch that slows the rate of transcript elongation by RNA polymerase II to ensure timely transcription termination – Robert Fisher

Revealed mechanisms that regulate DTC dormancy and therapeutics strategies using available drugs to prevent metastasis by inducing dormancy – Julio Aguirre-Ghiso

Developed a panel of patient-derived iPSC lines modeling progression of blood cancers from clonal hematopoiesis to myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia – Eirini Papapetrou

Discovered a role for PTEN in the regulation of glutamine flux to pyrimidine synthesis and sensitivity to dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibition – Ramon Parsons

Utilized BET inhibitors (BETi) to identify novel melanoma driver genes that are not mutated, but rather driven by super-enhancer activity, and identified a transmember molecule, AMIGO2, as a melanoma survival gene whose expression is driven by a super-enhancer, representing a new potential target for melanoma therapy – Emily Bernstein

Discovered a mechanism of early dissemination in breast cancer involving the coordination of oncogene signalling and macrophage recruitment – Julio Aguirre-Ghiso

Created the first direct acting small molecule antagonists against the scaffold protein KSR, revealing a new strategy to target RAS-driven cancers – Arvin Dar

Developed a FRET-based high throughput screen platform for the discovery of small molecule inhibitors against the Cullin-RING E3 ubiquiting ligases – Zhen-Qiang Pan

Identified structural and molecular mechanisms that determine the biochemical effects of RAF inhibitors, and developed a blueprint for the clinical use of these drugs for cancer therapy – Poulikos Poulikakos

Discovered a small molecule RAS-mimetic capable of disrupting RAS association with effector proteins and blocking signaling – E. Premkumar Reddy

Discovered a mechanism of early dissemination in breast cancer involving the coordination of oncogene signalling and macrophage recruitment – Julio Aguirre-Ghiso

Showed that mitochondrial division is a critical regulator of cellular transformation and cancer metabolism that affects chemotherapeutic success – Jerry Edward Chipuk

Described new model of myelodysplastic syndrome based on human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which provides proof of principle for the value of isogenic human iPSC models to study cancer and offers a new approach to the functional study of hemigygous chromosomal deletions found in cancer genomes – Eirini Papapetrou

Discovered a role for combined actions of kinase and BET inhibitors in the inhibition of PI3-K signaling and in overcoming resistance to therapy – Ramon Parsons

Discovered a role for FOXO1 in instructing the germinal center dark zone program – David Dominguez-Sola

Identified a family of nucleases that are necessary and sufficient for lesion processing to enable cells to correct DNA damage – Matthew O'Connell

Described a long isoform of PTEN that can be secreted and is able to enter cells to regulate lipid signaling – Ramon Parsons

Introduced the concept that lymphatic endothelial cells control the entry of metastases into the lymph nodes – Mihaela Skobe

Re-established Cdk2 as a non-redundant regulator of cell-cycle commitment and potential target for anti-cancer drugs – Robert Fisher

First to show a role for histone variants in cancer progression (prior to the identification of driver mutations in histone variants), and published the first paper to highlight the role of macro-H2A in melanoma – Emily Bernstein

Established that macrophage in the adult brain derives from embryonic precursors and self-renew locally throughout life; revealed the key role of embryonic events in shaping brain homeostasis – Miriam Merad

Identified Rabex-5 as the ubiquitin ligase that promotes mono- and di-ubiquitination of Ras, acting as a means of negative feedback to prevent Ras signaling to downstrem effectors – Cathie Pfleger

Established that CD44 attenuates the stress-induced activation of the Hippo signaling pathway and developed a series of novel anti-CD44 biological agents against glioblastoma – Qin Yu

Discovered immunoediting in human cancers – Marta Luksza

Developed pre-clinically an innate immunity-based therapeutic for acute myeloid leukemia by inhibiting cleavage of MICA and MICB with monoclonal antibody – Lucas Ferrari de Andrade

Discovered a long form of GNAS which activates G protein and ERK signaling, as a specific mis-splicing target of U2AF1 and SRSF2 mutations in MDS – Eirini Papapetrou

Identified the molecular basis for the distinct clinical and histopathological features of aggressive Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) – Stuart Aaronson

Demonstrated that recurrent somatic mutations targeting FOXO1 in germinal center-derived B cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas mimic positive selection programs to favor the expansion of precancerous B cells – David Dominguez-Sola

Identified the first small molecular inhibitor against Cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase 4 – Zhen-Qiang Pan

Demonstrated that AKT degradation causes destabilization of Aurora Kinase B and selective inhibition of cell growth in a sunset of cancers with mutant PI3K/PTEN pathway but wild type KRAS and BRAF – Ramon Parsons

Discovered and characterized new classes of RAF and MEK inhibitors and developed rationally designed therapies for BRAF-mutant cancers – Poulikos Poulikakos

Revealed that absence of TBK1 causes a rare autoinflammatory condition, which is treatable by TNK inhibitors – Dusan Bogunovic

Identified a molecular program induced in dendritic cells upon capture of tumor cell debris that shape their ability to encounter and interact with T cells – Miriam Merad

Revealed the first co-crystal structure of trametinib where the drug binding pocket extends to the interface of the KSR-MEK complex, and created a new tool compound, called trametiglue that limits adaptive forms of drug resistance – Arvin Dar