Origins of Cancer: Honoring Dr. George Vande Woude, an Oncogene Pioneer

Tony Hunter received his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, England, and completed postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Cambridge. He joined the faculty of the Salk Institute in 1975, where he is currently Professor and Renato Dulbecco Chair in Cancer Research. In 1979, through his work on tumor viruses, he discovered a new class of protein kinases that phosphorylate tyrosine residues in proteins, establishing that dysregulated tyrosine phosphorylation by an activated tyrosine kinase can cause cancer. He and others went on to show that tyrosine phosphorylation is a widespread reversible protein modification essential for the regulation of a wide variety of cellular processes in multicellular eukaryotes, including transmembrane signal transduction by surface receptors. His work led to the realization that aberrant tyrosine phosphorylation is causal in several types of human cancer and in other diseases, and this has led to the successful development of small molecule inhibitors that target disease-causing tyrosine kinases, known as TKIs, such as Gleevec, a BCR-ABL inhibitor used for treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia. As of January 2022, over 60 TKIs have been approved for clinical use world wide. Hunter has received many awards for his work on tyrosine phosphorylation, and has been elected to several academic societies, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London.

Frank McCormick, PhD, is a Professor at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, Dr. McCormick pursued cancer-related work with several Bay Area biotechnology firms and held positions with Cetus Corporation (Director of Molecular Biology, 1981-1990; Vice President of Research, 1990-1991) and Chiron Corporation, where he was Vice President of Research. In 1992 he founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a company dedicated to developing new cancer therapies, and served as its Chief Scientific Officer until 1996. At Onyx Pharmaceuticals, he initiated drug discovery efforts that led to the approval of Sorafenib in 2005 for treatment of renal cell cancer, and for liver cancer in 2007, and the approval of ONYX-015 in 2006 in China for treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer. In addition, Dr. McCormick’s group led to the identification of the CDK4 kinase inhibitor, Palbociclib, approved for treating advanced breast cancer. Dr. McCormick’s current research interests center on ways of targeting Ras proteins and their regulators, including the NF1 protein neurofibromin.

Dr. McCormick holds the David A. Wood Chair of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research at UCSF. He is the author of over 350 scientific publications and holds more than 20 issued patents. Dr. McCormick was Director of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1997 to 2014. He also served as President, 2012-2013, for the American Association for Cancer Research. Since 2013, Dr. McCormick has led the National Cancer Institute’s Ras Initiative at the Frederick National Laboratories for Cancer Research overseeing the national effort to develop therapies against Ras-driven cancers. These cancers include most pancreatic cancers, and many colorectal and lung cancers, and are amongst the most difficult cancers to treat.

Dr. McCormick is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Luis F. Parada obtained a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Biology from MIT, identifying oncogenes in human cancer. He was a Damon Runyon and Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pasteur Institute. He headed the Molecular Embryology Section at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD from 1988 to 1994 when he moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as the inaugurating Diana and Richard C. Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology, and was Director of the Kent Waldrep Foundation Center for Basic Neuroscience Research. During his time in Dallas, Dr. Parada advanced his studies of nerve cell survival and regeneration, mood disorders, and renewed his attention on cancer with emphasis on the nervous system. His laboratory uses genetic mouse models to study human disease including Neurofibromatosis, cancers of the nervous system, autism, and neural development. In 2015 Dr. Parada moved his laboratory to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to assume leadership of the interdisciplinary Brain Tumor Center. In addition Dr. Parada holds the Albert C. Foster Chair and is Professor of Cancer Biology and Genetics. In recognition of his contributions to science, Dr. Parada has been elected to: The National Academy of Sciences; The American Academy of Arts and Sciences: The Institute of Medicine – National Academy of Sciences (National Academy of Medicine); The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas TAMEST); and is a life-time American Cancer Society Professor.

Dr. Morag Park is a Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Biochemistry and joined McGill in 1989. She is a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, James McGill Professor and holds the Diane and Sal Guerrera Chair in Cancer Genetics at McGill University. Dr. Park received a B.Sc. with first class honors from the University of Glasgow, a Ph.D. in Viral carcinogenesis at the Medical Research Council Virology Institute in Scotland and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes for Cancer Research in Washington DC, US. She joined McGill University in 1989. She was the Director of the Molecular Oncology Group at the McGill University Health Centre (2006-8), Scientific Director of the Institute of Cancer Research for the CIHR (2008-13), co-chair of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance (2008-2010) and is now Director of the Goodman Cancer Institute (2013-present). She is a recipient of a Canadian Cancer Research Alliance Award (2015) for Exceptional Leadership in Cancer Research, and also a recipient of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences Arthur Wynne Gold Medal Prize (2016) for having made major contributions to biochemistry, molecular and cell biology in Canada. Most recently she is a recipient of the Canadian Cancer Society Robert L. Noble Prize (2017), the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation Grand Prix Scientifique (2019), and the Club de Recherches Cliniques du Québec Michel Sarrazin Award (2021).

Dr. Park is a research leader in the field of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and mechanisms of oncogenic activation of RTKs in human cancers. She cloned the Met RTK, which is now a key therapeutic target in oncology. She established the Breast Cancer Functional Genomics Group at McGill. She has pioneered studies of the breast tumour and immune microenvironment in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).  She has established animal models as well as patient derived xenografts to study heterogeneity, tumor progression and drug response in TNBC. She was the elected chair of the Tumour Microenvironment Network of the American Association for Cancer Research (2015-2017). She has more than 230 publications, and an h-index of 81.

Sue VandeWoude is a veterinary virologist recognized for her studies of the biology, pathogenesis, and ecology of viral infections in felids. Her work has included virus discovery, viral co-infection interference, and cross species transmission of infections between domestic and nondomestic cats. Her disease ecology studies have indicated that anthropogenic change influences disease incidence in free-ranging bobcats and pumas, and that spillover of diseases from domestic cats to pumas occurs frequently with a range of clinical outcomes.  Her work on Feline Leukemia Virus has examined interaction between endogenous and exogenous genomes in natural and experimental infections, and has shown how these interactions modify viral replication and disease expression. Her recent studies of experimental SARS-CoV-2 infections in cats have revealed strong viral selection following inoculation with human-derived strains and during cat-to-cat transmission.  VandeWoude is currently University Distinguished Professor and Director of the CSU One Health Institute, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019.

Harold Varmus, M.D., co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, joined the Meyer Cancer Center of Weill Cornell Medicine as the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine in April, 2015.   He is also a Senior Associate Member of the New York Genome Center, where he helps to develop programs in cancer genomics, and an adjunct professor at the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York.   Previously, Dr. Varmus was the Director of the National Cancer Institute for five years, the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for ten years, and Director of the National Institutes of Health for six years.   A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University in English literature and of Columbia University in medicine, he was further trained at Columbia University Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), before becoming a member of the UCSF basic science faculty for over two decades. He is a member of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences and Medicine, is involved in several initiatives to promote science and health in developing countries, and serves on advisory groups for several academic, governmental, philanthropic, and commercial institutions.  These positions currently include co-chair of the Mayor’s LifeSciNYC  initiative and member of advisory boards for Chan-Zuckerberg Science, the Broad and the Crick Institutes, the global health program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, three biotechnology companies (Surrozen, Dragonfly, and Volastra), and, most recently, the chair of the World Health Organization’s new Science Council.    The author of about 400 scientific papers and five books, including a 2009 memoir entitled The Art and Politics of Science, Varmus was a co-chair of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Public Library of Science, and chair of the Scientific Board of the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health.

Shelby is a fourth-year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Russell Jones at Van Andel Institute. Her research is focused on the tumor suppressor liver kinase B1 (LKB1), which when mutated, gives rise to a cancer predisposition syndrome called Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome. Specifically, she seeks to identify mechanisms of how LKB1 controls inflammation, and how inflammation regulated by LKB1 impacts tumor growth.

Patrick Dischinger is third year graduate student in Matt Steensma’s lab, which focuses on the gene NF1 and the protein for which it codes, neurofibromin. Specifically, Patrick focuses on how mutations or alterations in NF1 expression contribute to aggressive breast cancer development and discovering new therapeutic options for this subset of breast cancer.

Ariana is a fourth-year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Scott Rothbart at Van Andel Institute. Ariana works towards improving methodology in epigenetics research, specifically towards mapping interactions of histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) and histone PTM reader proteins.

Brandon is a third-year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Russell Jones at Van Andel Institute. Brandon works on how dietary interventions modulates immune responses in the context of anti-tumor immunity.

Nathan Spix received his B.S. in biochemistry from Oakland University in 2016. While there, he spent three years in the retinal physiology laboratory of Dr. Dao-Qi Zhang studying the function of retinal dopaminergic neurons. He subsequently matriculated into the Michigan State University-Van Andel Institute joint M.D.-Ph.D. program and completed two years of medical school training at the MSU College of Human Medicine before starting his thesis work with Van Andel Institute Graduate School. At the Graduate School, he works under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Laird studying the epigenetic origins of human colorectal cancer. His career goals include leading a translational oncology laboratory and maintaining an active oncology practice. When not at the lab, Nathan enjoys spending time with his family, playing the violin, and being outdoors.