MIT Geneticist Is Honored for His Research Into Programmed Cell Death

MEDIA ADVISORY/Release on June 6, l998

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Johanna Spangenberg (703) 527-7424
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MIT GENETICIST IS HONORED FOR HIS RESEARCH INTO PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH

H. Robert Horvitz is the 1998 Alfred P. Sloan Prize awarded by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation

Programmed cell-death is an essential aspect of human and animal development. When this normal biological process goes awry, a variety of diseases, including cancer, can occur. Furthermore, many cancer therapies act to instigate programmed cell-death, thereby killing unwanted cancer cells.

Finding out what action in the cell makes programmed cell-death occur could lead to the discovery of new pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of a wide range of cancers. H. Robert Horvitz, PhD, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has established that programmed cell-death is dependent upon the functioning of specific genes. Specifically, by studying cell-death in the roundworm, nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Dr. Horvitz has identified and monitored the roles of 15 genes involved in the cell-death process.

The potential contribution of Dr. Horvitz's research towards developing more effective treatments for cancer is significant. Accordingly, he is the 1998 recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Prize, awarded by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for the year's most outstanding recent basic science contribution to cancer research. Dr. Horvitz will receive the award at a dinner to be held at the Library of Congress, June 10, 1998. The awards dinner is the final event of the 20th annual meeting of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation.

Dr. Horvitz joined the MIT faculty in 1978 as an Assistant Professor of Biology. He received his full professorship eight years later. Since 1989, Dr. Horvitz has also been a staff neurobiologist and geneticist at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

A native of Chicago, Dr. Horvitz completed his undergraduate work at MIT in 1968 with degrees in both mathematics and biology. Hes attended Harvard University for his graduate studies in biology, attaining a masters degree in 1972 and a doctorate two years later. Dr. Horvitz's post-doctoral studies were conducted at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge, U.K. He is a past president of the Genetics Society of America. Dr. Horvitz is a recipient of numerous awards from the nation's leading medical societies and academic institutions including the Rosenthal Award (Brandeis University), Spencer Award in Neurobiology (Columbia University) and the Ciba-Drew Award for Biomedical Science.