American Association for Cancer Research awards Joan Massagué

Tomorrow, scientist Joan Massagué will receive the “Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research” given by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), in a ceremony to be held in San Antonio, USA. The AACR is the most emblematic organization in the world, on the basis of its many years of operation and its size, in the promotion and sponsorship of the most innovative research developed in the fight against cancer. Adjunct Director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and researcher at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Massagué has been selected for this award for the impact of his studies on the metastasis of breast cancer to the lung.

Massagué has devoted more than twenty years to elucidating the role of the TGF-Beta protein in cell growth and division. His work has revealed that an imbalance in TGF-Beta receptors contributes to the spread of cancer cells. In addition, he has identified the metastatic features of breast cancer cells, which can be used to predict the capacity of tumour cells to spread. Thus, these studies have demonstrated that on some occasions genetic predisposition can be identified in primary tumours before the cancer has started to spread.

Massagué’s work is a clear example of the need to answer basic biological questions in order to further our understanding of cancer and to develop new approaches to treatment and diagnosis. Joan Massagué obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Barcelona. In 1989 he was recruited by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), where he currently serves as head of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program. He has been the Adjunct Director of IRB Barcelona since the end of 2005.