Levi Garraway awarded Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research

Broad senior associate member Levi Garraway is one of three young investigators to receive this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research . The award is bestowed every other year by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to promising scientists under the age of 45 in recognition of their...

Levi Garraway
Levi Garraway

Broad senior associate member Levi Garraway is one of three young investigators to receive this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The award is bestowed every other year by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to promising scientists under the age of 45 in recognition of their contributions to cancer research.

Garraway, who is also an associate professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School and co-leader of the Cancer Genetics Program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, was recognized for his efforts in the field of cancer genomics. His research focuses on the discovery of new genes and molecular pathways that contribute to the development of cancer – particularly melanoma and prostate cancer. He also conducts work on drug resistance in cancer, and is perhaps best known for his contributions to precision cancer medicine – adapting genomic technology to profile human tumors in an effort to identify viable targets for therapeutics. At the Broad Institute, Garraway also leads the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia project, a collaboration with Novartis that involves a genomic and pharmacological study of ~1000 human cancer cell lines to characterize sensitivity and resistance to anticancer agents.

Garraway was awarded the prize alongside Simon J. Boulton of Cancer Research UK, and Duojia (DJ) Pan of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The winners each receive $50,000, and will present their work at a scientific symposium on December 5, 2013.

The prize was first presented in 2001 and was named in honor of Memorial Sloan-Kettering president emeritus Paul Marks in recognition of his contributions to the center. Of the 22 scientists who have received the award, five are affiliated with the Broad. In addition to Garraway, senior associate members Tyler Jacks (2005), Matthew Meyerson (2009), and David Sabatini (2009) were past honorees, as was chief scientific officer and Cancer Program director Todd Golub (2007).