Diabetes Center Director Mark Anderson MD PhD has been awarded the prestigious Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute. The Coley Award honors groundbreaking contributions to cancer research, validating and highlighting the impact of innovative work, particularly in immunotherapy and recognizes Dr. Anderson's foundational contributions to the understanding of immune tolerance mechanisms, self-antigen presentation, and the role of Aire in preventing auto-immunity; specifically, by demonstrating that the cellular mechanism by which Aire exerts its tolerance-promoting function is not primarily positive selection of regulatory T cells, but rather negative selection of T effector cells; and that, surprisingly, supplementing its influence on the transcription of genes encoding peripheral-tissue antigens, Aire somehow enhances the antigen-presentation capability of medullary epithelial cells. He shares this award with Christophe Benoist, PhD and Diane Mathis, PhD for he work he did as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School.
"Honored to join such an esteemed group of immunologists that have won this award," said Mark Anderson. "This recognition underscores the importance of unlocking the fundamentals of immune tolerance as a way forward to improve human health.”
The William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology has been given to some of the world’s most gifted scientists. Their work has deepened our understanding of the immune system’s response to cancer and other diseases and advanced the development of effective immunotherapies. This award is given to one or more scientists for seminal discoveries in the field of basic immunology and cancer immunology. The award was established in 1975 in honor of Dr. William B. Coley, a pioneer of cancer immunotherapy, whose daughter, Helen Coley Nauts, founded CRI.