Moses named to inaugural class of AACR fellows

Harold L. (Hal) Moses, M.D., professor and acting chair of Cancer Biology and professor of Medicine and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has been named to the first class of the Fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy.

Moses was the founding director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and now serves as director emeritus of VICC. He is the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Molecular Oncology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

The AACR Academy was created to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose major contributions have spurred significant innovation and progress against cancer. The fellows were selected through a rigorous peer review process that evaluates individuals on the basis of their scientific achievements in cancer research.

Moses is one of 106 scientists elected to the inaugural class of AACR Fellows, symbolizing the 106-year history of the organization.

The discovery by Moses’ laboratory of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF- β) protein as an inhibitor of normal cell growth had a major impact in cancer research, creating a building block on which much subsequent TGF- β research has been based.

His group demonstrated that over-expression of TGF- β1 in mammary epithelial cells suppressed mammary (breast) tumor formation. One of the most provocative discoveries was that loss of TGF- β signaling in a subset of tissue fibroblasts could cause cancerous and invasive malignant tumors in adjacent tissue.

As the director of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at VICC, Moses leads a team of investigators dedicated to understanding the underlying mechanisms that lead to cellular changes and tumor formation, especially in breast cancer.

He has played a leadership role at several national cancer research organizations and lectures extensively at national and international cancer conferences. Moses has served as president of AACR and the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI). He is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies and was founding chair of the IOM’s National Cancer Policy Forum.

The AACR will inaugurate the first class of the Fellows of the AACR Academy, Friday, April 5, during the AACR Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.