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Lewis C. Cantley, PhD, director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been named one of seven recipients of the 2016 Wolf Prize in Medicine.
The Wolf Prize in Medicine - considered Israel's Nobel Prize - is presented annually by the Wolf Foundation to researchers who have made pivotal achievements in their field. Cantley received the award for research that identified the enzyme phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3 kinase), fundamental to the understanding of diabetes and cancer.
This year's seven winners will share the $500,000 cash prize.
HemOnc Today spoke with Cantley about what the award means to him, the accomplishments that led to his selection and what he hopes winning an award like this will do for his research team at Weill Cornell.
Question: What was your reaction when you learned you received the Wolf Prize in Medicine?
Answer: It was certainly a huge surprise and great excitement to be honored with such an incredible prize. The previous list of recipients is impressive. Major breakthroughs in medicine have been awarded since 1978, and it was a great pleasure to be amidst such an austere group. It also was a real pleasure for me to be awarded with my often-times collaborator, C. Ronald Kahn, MD, who received the Wolf Prize in Medicine for research in insulin signaling. Ron and I have published a number of papers together over the years elucidating the mechanism by which insulin activates PI3...