JANUARY 17, 2024, NEW YORK – Five Ludwig Cancer Research scientists have been elected Fellows of the Academy of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), class of 2024: Ludwig Lausanne Member Johanna Joyce, Ludwig MIT investigator Sangeeta Bhatia, Ludwig Harvard investigator David Pellman, and Ludwig Stanford investigators Laura Attardi and Roeland Nusse. Through an annual peer review process of existing AACR Fellows, the Academy honors scientists whose contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer.
Ludwig Lausanne Member Johanna Joyce is recognized for her significant contributions to our understanding of the microenvironment of primary and metastatic brain tumors, most notably their immune landscapes and the role immune cells play in drug resistance. Her work, the Academy notes, has uncovered “effective combination therapies targeting tumor-associated macrophages and microglia in brain metastases.”
Ludwig MIT’s Sangeeta Bhatia is honored for her “significant contributions to improving the diagnostic and treatment strategies available for cancer patients” through her pioneering development of micro- and nanotechnologies for use across cancer diagnosis and treatment, drug delivery and tissue regeneration. These methods promise to broaden noninvasive options available to clinicians for detecting and profiling tumors.
Ludwig Stanford’s Laura Attardi is being recognized for her “groundbreaking research dedicated to delineating p53 transcriptional networks, identifying novel p53 target genes critical for tumor suppression, and for characterizing dispensable DNA damage pathways for tumor suppression in the presence of robust p53 activity.”
Her colleague Roeland Nusse, who is a Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research at Stanford University, is honored for his investigations of the Wnt signaling pathway that span the initial discovery and purification of Wnt family proteins to the continued exploration of their biological functions in such processes as tissue regeneration and carcinogenesis, the latter “highlighted by his elucidation of the critical role of Wnt signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma.”
Ludwig Harvard’s David Pellman is being recognized for “illustrious contributions to the understanding of cell division functions such as spindle assembly and positioning, asymmetric cell division, and cytokinesis, which, when aberrant, contribute to genomic instability, for developing novel technologies such as single-cell genome sequencing, and for elucidating key regulatory mechanisms in genomic and organismal evolution.”
We extend our hearty congratulations to these esteemed members of the Ludwig Cancer Research community on their election to the AACR Academy.