Charles Perou, PhD, the May Goldman Shaw Distinguished Professor of Molecular Oncology, has been honored with the 2013 Hyman L. Battle Distinguished Cancer Research Award in recognition of his accomplishments in cancer research. Dr. Perou is a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Battle Distinguished Cancer Research Award, established in 2007 by the Battle Foundation of Rocky Mount, NC, recognizes exceptional cancer research at the UN School of Medicine and comes with a $25,000 prize. The Battle Award fund is a permanent endowment held by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc.
Shelley Earp, MD, Director of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, said, “Chuck Perou’s career-long investigation into the field of RNA expression profiling of human cancers has produced seminal work in cancer biology. His findings have had a worldwide impact on understanding that breast cancer is not one disease but a collection of diseases with different prognoses and potential therapies. His team has made particularly important contributions to the definition and characterization of ‘triple-negative breast cancer.’ Added to his leadership of The Cancer Genome Atlas and discovery of the molecular epidemiology of breast caner in younger African-American women, his work has revolutionized modern therapy for breast cancer.
Dr. Perou, a UNC faculty member since 2000, is the Faculty Director of the LCCC Bioinformatics Core Resource, and Co-Director of the Breast Cancer Research Program. He is a member of the ALLIANCE/CALGB Breast Committee, and of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium. He is also the co-founder of two genomics-based biotechnology companies (BioClassifier LLC, and GeneCentric), both of which are focused on developing gene expression-based molecular signatures into cancer diagnostics.
He was the recipient of the 2009 American Association for Cancer Research Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, and recipient of the 2011 Danaher Scientific and Medical Award, a Susan G. Komen Award for Scientific Distinction.
Date: May 24, 2013