Raymond N. DuBois, M.D. , Ph.D.
DuBois receives Landon Prize; named Hortense B. Ingram Professor
The American Association for Cancer Research and the Kirk A. & Dorothy P. Landon Foundation will honor Raymond N. DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., for extraordinary achievement in translational cancer research at the AACR’s annual meeting this month.
DuBois will receive the Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research in recognition of his groundbreaking contributions toward understanding the role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in cancer and the potential for COX-2 inhibition in preventing and treating cancers. DuBois is the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s associate director for cancer prevention, control and population-based research.
In nominating DuBois for the award, Harold L. Moses, M.D., Benjamin F. Byrd Professor of Oncology, noted that DuBois’ work has been translated into clinical trials to test the ability of COX-2 inhibitors to prevent colon polyps and thus colon cancers.
“The impact of Dr. DuBois’ research has been profound, and his findings have led to important research about the role of COX-2 in other types of cancer,” Moses wrote. Among this work are projects at Vanderbilt-Ingram and elsewhere evaluating the role of COX-2 in lung, skin, breast and prostate cancers.
DuBois said that he was both surprised and humbled to learn that he would receive the Dorothy P. Landon Prize and noted that many collaborators have made his research possible over the years. “It’s a tremendous honor,” DuBois said. “Throughout my career I have been very fortunate to be associated with outstanding laboratory staff, students, postdocs and collaborators who have kept the faith and made this work possible.
“Recognition like this award is important to promote translational research activity, and we are acutely aware of the need to hasten our efforts to better understand strategies and targets for cancer prevention so that we may save lives and reduce morbidity from this dreaded disease.”
DuBois holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Centers at San Antonio and Dallas, and completed his residency in medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. While completing a postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel Laureate Daniel Nathans at Johns Hopkins, DuBois obtained a Howard Hughes Research Associate Award.
Since joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1991, DuBois led the division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition from 1998-2003, held the Mina C. Wallace professorship, and received the Elliot Newman Award for excellence in basic research.
He served as co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Colorectal Cancer Progress Review Group, which established the research agenda and funding priorities for this decade. He is past president of both the Gastroenterology Research Group of the American Gastroenterology Association and the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. He currently serves as scientific advisor to the national Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance and on the advisory boards for the director of the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. In June, Dubois will become chairman of the board of directors for the Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology.
In 2000, he was inducted into the Royal College of Physicians by distinction and received the 2002 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from AACR.
Since 2002, the Kirk A. & Dorothy P. Landon Foundation, together with the AACR, give two major international awards, one to honor basic cancer research and the other to honor contributions such as those by DuBois in the translational research arena.
These awards, each of which carry a $200,000 cash prize, are designed both to recognize outstanding scientists who have made seminal discoveries at the cutting edge of cancer science and to heighten public attention to landmark achievements through the presentation of lectures during the annual AACR meeting.
The 95th annual AACR meeting is scheduled March 27-31 in Orlando, Fla.
DuBois will deliver the Dorothy P. Landon Prize in Translational Cancer Research Lecture at 5:30 p.m., Monday, March 29.
Named Ingram Professor
DuBois has been named Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Molecular Oncology at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
The endowed chair was established in 1991 by E. Bronson Ingram, then president and CEO of Ingram Industries and chairman of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust. Honoring Ingram’s mother, the late Hortense Bigelow Ingram, the chair provides continued support for innovative cancer research
“There is no one I would feel more comfortable holding a chair named for my grandmother than Ray DuBois,” said Orrin Ingram, president and CEO of Ingram Industries, chair of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Board of Overseers and leader of Vanderbilt-Ingram’s and Vanderbilt Medical Center’s ongoing fund-raising initiatives, the Imagine a World Without Cancer and the Shape the Future campaigns.
“Ray is a true leader in his field and has taken cancer research to the next level. I’m hopeful that the support that this chair provides will enable him to push even further toward the goal of a world without cancer.”
Harold L. Moses, M.D., Benjamin F. Byrd Professor of Oncology and Vanderbilt-Ingram’s director, noted that the endowment of the Hortense B. Ingram Chair was a pivotal point in the development of a world-class cancer research program at Vanderbilt and ultimately Tennessee’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Bronson Ingram, for whom the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center was named in 1999, died of cancer in 1995.
“We are enormously grateful to the Ingram family for their support and leadership,” Moses said.
A member of the Vanderbilt faculty since 1991, DuBois is Vanderbilt-Ingram’s associate director for cancer prevention, control and population-based research and professor of Medicine, Cancer Biology and Cell & Developmental Biology. He is formerly Mina Cobb Wallace Professor of Cancer Prevention and director of the division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.