Young Canadian cancer researcher honoured

New York, NY – Dr Jeff Wrana, of the University of Toronto and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, is one of three recipients of the 2005 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research and will share a $150,000 award.

The award was announced by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and is being shared with Tyler E Jacks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and Scott W Lowe, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the HHMI.

Dr Wrana’s work has focused on the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-) family of cell signaling proteins that regulate cell growth and function. These proteins are secreted by cells and then go back to the same cell or one nearby to control behavior.

He is a professor of medical genetics and microbiology at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist in the program in molecular biology and cancer in the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, part of Mount Sinai Hospital. He is also an HHMI international scholar. He received his PhD degree in biochemistry from the University of Toronto.