TAU scientist first Israeli to win top prize from AACR

Prof. Yosef Shiloh received the prestigious Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
TAU Professor Yosef Shiloh 311 (photo credit: Ayelet Kelertag/TAU)
TAU Professor Yosef Shiloh 311
(photo credit: Ayelet Kelertag/TAU)
Prof. Yosef Shiloh of Tel Aviv University Sackler Medical School has become the first Israeli researcher ever to receive the prestigious Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, it was announced on Sunday.
The AACR is regarded as the world’s largest and most important organization in the field.
AACR was founded in 1907 by a group of 11 physicians and scientists interested in research, to further the investigation and spread knowledge of cancer.
Today it targets the prevention and cure of cancer by promoting research, education, communication, and collaboration.
The Clowes Memorial Award was established by the Eli Lilly and Company in 1961 to honor Dr. G.H.A. Clowes, a founding member of the AACR and a research director of the pharmaceutical company. The Clowes Award, which comes with a $10,000 prize, recognizes an individual with outstanding recent accomplishments in basic cancer research.
Shilo, who with his TAU team has devoted himself to the study of the DNA damage response and the human genetic disorder ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), in which a central axis of the DNA damage response is missing, will deliver a lecture during AACR’s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida in April.
Shiloh notes that the DNA damage response is the cornerstone of a sophisticated system that maintains the stability and integrity of the cellular genome and is an intricate network of signaling pathways that is rapidly activated following the induction of various DNA lesions – most notably, one of the most dangerous ones: double strand breaks.
AACR director Margaret Foti said Shiloh’s work has launched a “scientific revolution and opened up new horizons in the understanding of how the living cell copes with DNA damage, which is among the main factors in cancer.”
“Our great hope,” said Shiloh, “is to understand this complex mechanism, and this will make it possible to design new treatments for cancer and other diseases that result from the failure in protection from DNA damage.”