Prof. Joan Massagué

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA

Dr. Joan Massagué (1953) received a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of Barcelona in 1978, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University from 1979, and a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Medical School from 1982. In 1989 he became Program Chairman at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is also Professor, Weill-Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and Adjunct Director, Barcelona Institute for Research in Biomedicine.

Dr. Massagué is recognized for his work on normal cell behavior and cancer cell metastasis. His work provided a direct explanation for how external signals from the cell membrane to the nucleus block mammalian cell division. He identified the TGF-beta receptors, their mechanism of activation, and the central concept of how this pathway operates. An end result of this process is the inhibition of cell division through novel CDK inhibitors that he co-discovered. These mechanisms are now known to be crucial in embryonic development, and their disruption causes congenital disorders and cancer. Through methods to dissect complex biological processes, Dr. Massagué has recently identified genes and mechanisms that mediate metastasis by breast and lung cancers to bones, lungs, and the brain. This work is opening new avenues for investigation and treatment of this devastating aspect of cancer. He has authored approximately 300 articles on these subjects.

Dr. Massagué is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Spanish Royal Academies of Medicine and of Pharmacy, and the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has been awarded the Passano Prize, the Vilcek Prize, the AACR Clowes Award, the BBVA Frontiers of Science Prize, the Pasarow Prize, the Feodor Lynen Medal, the King Juan Carlos Prize, the Queen Sofia Gold Medal, and the Prince of Asturias Prize.