Beckerle Awarded NCI Award for Research on Genetics of Cancer

Mary C. Beckerle, PhD

Mary C. Beckerle, PhD

Mary C. Beckerle, PhD, has been awarded the Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She received her award at the NCI’s Maryland headquarters before delivering a lecture on tumor biology.

Named after Alfred G. Knudson, a physician and geneticist who helped uncover several major genetic mysteries behind cancer, this award is given to those who contribute significant new findings and knowledge to the genetic workings of the disease. Beckerle is the 22nd Knudson award winner, a list which includes several Nobel laureates.

Beckerle is the current CEO and director of the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also serves as associate vice president for cancer affairs and holds the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah, where she teaches biology and oncologic sciences.

Her research has defined a novel molecular pathway that regulates cell motility, and her lab is currently focused on understanding the significance of this pathway on tumor progression, particularly in Ewing’s sarcoma. Continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Cancer Society over the past 20 years, her scientific work in tumor biology is critically important.

“It’s a tremendous honor to have the cancer research accomplishments of my laboratory recognized by the National Cancer Institute” Beckerle said in a statement. “I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with many talented graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and colleagues at Huntsman Cancer Institute, the University of Utah, and around the world as we have worked to understand fundamental aspects of cell biology with the goal of improving cancer treatments.”

She has served on numerous boards and other national and international organizations, including as the president of the American Society for Cell Biology in 2006. Additionally, she served on the NIH Advisory Committee to the Directors, the NCI Scientific Review Group Subcommittee A (Parent Committee) for Cancer Centers and as chair of the American Cancer Society Council for Extramural Grants. She currently serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as the Scientific Advisory Boards of the National Cancer for Biological Sciences in India, the Mechanobiology Institute in Singapore, and several NCI-designated cancer centers.

In addition to being chosen to serve on the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative Blue Ribbon Panel focusing on precision prevention and early detection, Beckerle has been nationally recognized with honors such as the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology, the Sword of Hope Award from the American Cancer Society, and the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence. In 2000, she was appointed as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Rothschild-Yvette Mayent Award Scholar at the Curie Institute in Paris and was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts in 2008 and to the American Philosophical Society in 2007.