George F. Vande Woude, PhD, FAACR, a world renowned molecular oncologist and a Fellow of the AACR Academy, died on April 13, 2021, at the age of 85.
Vande Woude was born on December 25, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York. He served in the U.S. Army, then earned a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees from Rutgers University. He had a long and distinguished career with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), beginning in 1972, when he joined the agency as head of the Human Tumor Studies and Virus Tumor Biochemistry sections. In 1983, Vande Woude became director of the Advanced Bioscience Laboratories–Basic Research Program at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, a division of the NCI. He later served as special advisor to the director, and then as director, of the NCI’s Division of Basic Sciences.
In 1999, he became the founding research director of Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He later led the institute’s Laboratory of Molecular Oncology as a Distinguished Scientific Fellow and professor. He was most recently a Distinguished Scientific Fellow Emeritus.
Vande Woude focused his career on understanding what causes cancer at the molecular level. With colleagues, he cloned integrated copies of acute transforming retroviruses and compared their resulting cancer-causing gene (oncogene) copy numbers with copies of normal genes (protooncogenes). These studies have helped the understanding of how normal protooncogenes become oncogenic. He also discovered the human MET oncogene and elucidated its role in carcinogenesis. He was a chief organizer of the first Oncogene Meeting in 1985.
Vande Woude joined the AACR in 1984. From 2001 to 2004, Vande Woude served on the AACR Board of Directors. He was the founding editor of the AACR’s journal Cell Growth & Differentiation, which has since been renamed Molecular Cancer Research. He was also an associate editor of Cancer Research. Vande Woude served as chair of the AACR Council of Scientific Advisors in 2006 and in 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the AACR Academy because of his seminal discoveries in molecular biology and genetics.
Vande Woude also served on numerous AACR committees, including the Laboratory Research Awards Selection Committee from 2003-2004, the Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research Committee in 2008-2009, the Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research Committee in 2009-2010, the AACR-WICR Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship Committee in 2011-2012, and the executive committee of the Clinical Cancer Research Committee from 2009-2013.
Vande Woude was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Microbiology, and he was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among other distinguished career awards, he received the National Institutes of Health Merit Award in 1982, the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award for Cancer Research in 1989, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Technology Transfer from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1992, and the Daniel Nathans Memorial Award in 2010. “George Vande Woude was a brilliant molecular oncologist, scientific administrator, and devoted member of the AACR. His expertise in cancer research has had a major impact on the cancer field, and it led him to be appointed the founding editor-in-chief of the high-impact journal known today as Molecular Cancer Research. We will remember George for his innovative spirit, his unique and beloved personality, and his passion for making a difference against cancer,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR.
Leave your remembrance of Dr. Vande Woude below
George, thank you for being a scientific mentor to me! You supported my research when I was an undergraduate student working summers at NIH, you were on my dissertation committee and helped me get my Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins, and you visited my lab and discussed research with me when I was a brand new Assistant Professor at Boise State University. Thanks for helping me throughout my career!
George was a wonderful scientist and a wonderful man. I am so glad our paths crossed.
George, you were a fierce competitor but, at the end, a friend.
I will miss you.
Rest in peace George, knowing that your contributions to cMET biology have helped many patients and scientists along the way. Enjoyed the comradery and collegiality of your team at Van Andel and the larger community.
George, you were always calm and wise when we discuss science. Always a scholar and gentleman to everyone. You will be missed.
I worked in George’s lab for 4 years as a postdoc fellow on mos and met oncogenes initially in bldg. 41 of NIH in Bethesda and later at NCI Frederick in Fort Detrick, Maryland. George was a great scientist and mentor I had an excellent time working in his group. He was truly a warm human being, was charmingly humorous and was full of life. My family and I enjoyed yearly lab picnics which he used to host at his farm in Virginia with pig roast and hay rides for postdocs kids. He was a caring and generous human and will be greatly missed by me as well as all the friends that he had.
My first cancer research experience was in the NCI-ABL laboratory that George ran. He was so kind to mentor and take in a college student in 1994-6, but was enormously influential in my budding career choices. He and his post-doc Kenji Fukasawa taught me the complexities of oncogenes, viral oncogenesis, drug development, and signaling. Now as a medical oncologist running my own lab, using therapies that target c-MET which he discovered, and continuing to find new avenues to treat cancer metastasis and invasion/plasticity, I can clearly reflect back on George's influence and the importance of early mentorship. I am forever grateful for that opportunity to have shared this experience with George and his team even for a short time.
It was great knowing you George! I will never forget my first encounter with you as a fresh international postdoc at Van Andel. You invited me into your office and talk to me for an hour and gave me valuable life lessons. It gave me an immense pleasure to meet such a great scientist and you were an inspiration throughout my career.
Rest in peace!
Hasan
It is with great sadness that I read this. George was also one of the founders of the Oncogenes meetings in Frederick, Maryland where I cut my teeth as a junior postdoc. We had numerous discussions at these meetings and I consider him as one of my mentors, who influenced the way I thought about cancer genes. His contributions to the field are well documented. He will be missed by the community. Rest in Peace George.