Bert Vogelstein, M.D., whose published studies of cancer genetics are the most highly cited works in the field, received this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology “Science of Oncology” Award at the group’s annual meeting in Orland, Fla., on June 1.

Vogelstein was selected for his decades of  research, uncovering the specific genes and mutations responsible for colorectal cancer and for establishing a genetic model for how all cancers form and progress. He discovered the APC gene, which controls cell growth in the colon, and has made significant contributions to understanding the role of the p53 gene in the development of cancer.

Vogelstein and his team are using their findings to develop tests that identify individuals at risk for developing colon cancer, to track treatment progress, and to search for new therapies.. His lab also developed sensitive blood tests already used to identify patients with inherited mutations in genes linked to colorectal cancer.

In the past year, Vogelstein and colleagues mapped the complete genetic blueprint for pancreatic and brain cancer, two of the most deadly tumors, And they completed the genome maps for breast cancer and colorectal cancer in 2007.

“Bert Vogelstein ranks today, as he has for more than a decade, as one of the world’s most influential scientists. The discoveries that led the world to understand that cancer is a genetic disease unfolded one by one in his laboratory,” says William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Vogelstein is the Clayton Professor of Oncology, a Howard Hughes Investigator and Director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

On the Web:
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/vogelstein.html