President’s Chair in Developmental Immunology;
University Professor of Microbiology, Immunology
and Molecular Genetics, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology;
Director Emeritus, Eli & Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative
Medicine and Stem Cell Research;
Member of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
For unprecedent contributions to elucidating the role of tyrosine kinases in hematologic malignancies and for his pivotal role in developing novel cancer treatments. He was the first to identify the Abl fusion oncoprotein in leukemia and to predict that mutated ABL kinase could serve as a viable drug target, which would in turn lead to the development of imatinib as a frontline therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia. He later described Bruton’s tyrosine kinases (BTK) as key drivers of antigen-activated lymphomas and autoimmune disease, a breakthrough discovery that would result in the clinical development of the FDA-approved BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib, for the treatment of B cell lymphoma.
The AACR established this award to recognize an individual on the basis of their meritorious achievements and contributions to any aspect of blood cancer research and who has made a significant scientific contribution to basic, translational, or clinical research related to blood cancer or associated disorders such as myelodysplastic syndrome or myeloproliferative neoplasms. To learn more please visit the press release.
View Dr. Witte’s Fellows of the AACR Academy page.
View Past Recipients.