Komen News: The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Announces 2003 Recipients of Prestigious Komen Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction
The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Announces 2003 Recipients of Prestigious Komen Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction
Berkeley National Laboratory and Harvard University Scientists Honored at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium for Laboratory, Clinical Advancements
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS - December 1, 2003 - The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, recognized as the nation's leading private source of funding for breast cancer research, today announced the 2003 winners of its prestigious Komen Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction. Established by the Komen Foundation in 1992, the Brinker Award recognizes leading scientists for significant work that advances basic research concepts or clinical application in the fields of breast cancer. The awardees are nominated and selected by a panel of their peers.
2003 Award Winners
The 2003 Brinker Award winner for advancements in the field of clinical research is Walter Churchill Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., of Harvard University's Department of Nutrition in Cambridge, Mass. Mina J. Bissell, Ph.D., director of the Life Sciences Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., is the Foundation's 2003 Brinker Award winner in the category of basic research.
The awardees will be honored at a special dinner during the 26th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which attracts internationally recognized experts in the field of breast cancer. In addition, the award winners will discuss their work as part of the conference's marquee Brinker Award Lectures on December 4. The awardees also receive a $10,000 honorarium to be applied to their work, a citation and an inscribed crystal statuette from Tiffany & Co.
"Announcing the winners of the Komen Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction allows the Foundation to recognize specific clinical and research efforts that advance the global scientific and clinical communities' knowledge and understanding of breast cancer," said Rebecca Garcia, Ph.D., vice president of health sciences for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. "The achievements of each award winner mark significant milestones on the path to eradicating breast cancer as a life-threatening disease."
Dr. Willett's Research
Dr. Willett's research involves the investigation of dietary factors, using epidemiological approaches, in the cause and prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other important conditions. Fundamental to his work has been the development of methods to measure dietary intake and its effects in large populations. Specific to breast cancer, Dr. Willett and his cohorts evaluate relationships between the use of exogenous hormones in the form of oral contraceptives and post-menopausal estrogens and the risks of breast cancer and other diseases. Dr. Willett also examines the relationship between lifestyle factors such as physical activity and the occurrence of significant and life-threatening diseases.
Dr. Bissell's Research
Dr. Bissell's research examines the sophisticated manner in which the network of physical and biochemical signals converge in an orchestrated manner to effect signaling that governs gene expression within bodily tissues. She and her colleagues study the factors that lead to cells proliferating, expressing tissue-specific genes or programming themselves for their own death, a phenomenon called apoptosis. In order to understand the intercellular activities and accompanying crosstalk, Dr. Bissell and her colleagues have developed unique systems to study gene expression in the context of three-dimensional models representing whole tissues.
Past Award Recipients
Past recipients of the Komen Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction are: Elwood V. Jensen, Ph.D.; Charles L. Loprinzi, M.D.; Bert W. O'Malley, M.D.; Jay R. Harris, M.D.; Angela Brodie, Ph.D.; Dimitrios Trichopoulos; Nancy Davidson, M.D.; Mary-Claire King, Ph.D.; Leland H. Hartwell, Ph.D.; Henry T. Lynch, M.D.; Gabriel Hortobagyi, M.D.; David Livingston, M.D.; Edison Liu, M.D.; Umberto Veronesi, M.D.; Helene S. Smith, Ph.D.; C. Kent Osborne, M.D.; Marc Lippman, M.D.; Malcolm C. Pike, Ph.D.; Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D.; Richard J. Santen, M.D.; V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D., D.Sc.; and Bernard Fisher, M.D.
