2022 Prize: Rakesh K. Jain, Ph.D.
View Photos from the 2022 Ceremony
Director of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratories for Tumor Biology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Andrew Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School
The 2022 Prize Selection Committee selected Dr. Rakesh Jain to receive the Prize for his pioneering research and breakthrough discoveries on overcoming barriers posed by the tumor microenvironment (TME) – the surrounding blood vessels, immune cells, other cells such as fibroblasts, and the extracellular matrix – which led to the improved delivery and efficacy of anti-cancer medicines.
Dr. Jain proposed the groundbreaking concept that ‘normalizing’ the abnormal tumor vessels – using anti-angiogenic approaches – originally developed to inhibit formation of blood vessels – can create a ‘window of opportunity’ or time period thereby allowing better delivery and efficacy of anti-cancer medicines.
Dr. Jain applied his vascular normalization principle to improve the efficacy of the new immunotherapy – immune-checkpoint blockade. His seminal pre-clinical work laid the foundation for clinical trials and U.S. Federal Drug Association (FDA) approval of seven combinations of anti-angiogenic drugs with checkpoint blockers to enhance their efficacy in lung, liver, endometrial, and kidney cancer patients.
