The winners are Angelika Amon, PhD, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), who studies how chromosomes segregate during cell division; Todd R. Golub, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and the HHMI, who employs genomic approaches to better classify subtypes of cancer; and Gregory J. Hannon, PhD, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the HHMI, who uses model systems to study the biochemistry and biology of the RNA interference mechanism.
Angelika Amon
Angelika Amon, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Biology and the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Her work combines genetic, biochemical, and cell biology techniques to study the regulation of cell division. One focus of Dr. Amon’s work has been to examine the last step of the cell division process, known as exit from mitosis. She also has studied chromosome segregation during meiosis, the specialized form of cell division needed to create egg and sperm. A current focus of Dr. Amon’s laboratory is studying the effects of aneuploidy (which occurs if chromosomes do not separate properly) on the way that cells proliferate. Dr. Amon received her PhD degree in biology from the University of Vienna.
Angelika Amon’s Web page at MIT.
Todd R. Golub
Todd R. Golub, MD, is Charles A. Dana Investigator of Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an associate professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and founding director of the Cancer Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Using genomic approaches, he has made major contributions to the understanding of how genes can be used to classify cancers, which is important for the diagnosis and prognosis of disease, as well as for developing better targeted therapies. An approach that his team developed called the Connectivity Map uses analytical tools to match the gene expression profiles of certain diseases with the mechanism of action of new and existing drugs. Dr. Golub received his MD degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Todd Golub’s Web page at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Gregory J. Hannon
Gregory J. Hannon, PhD, is a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is a leader in the field of RNA interference, which uses a naturally occurring mechanism for regulating the expression of genes as a tool to study the function of specific genes. Dr. Hannon’s laboratory has elucidated key biochemical details of the components of the pathways involved in RNAi and is using these findings to develop molecular tools that can be used for gene discovery, the evaluation of gene function, and the generation of animal models. He also has been at the forefront of adapting RNAi techniques to study genes in mammals, and using these techniques to understand pathways that can lead to the formation of tumors. Dr. Hannon earned his PhD degree in molecular biology from Case Western Reserve University.
