Stephen Elledge, PhD
Stephen Elledge, PhD, of the Division of Genetics, was named a winner of Cancer Research UK’s Grand Challenge competition, which awards five-year, £20 million (approximately $25 million) prizes to international, multidisciplinary research teams seeking to revolutionize our understanding of cancer and make big strides toward better treatments and new ways to prevent and diagnose the disease. Elledge leads one of three research teams selected for this year’s award.
Elledge’s co-investigators on the project include Karen Cichowski, PhD, of the Brigham’s Division of Genetics; Kevin Haigis, PhD, of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and Peter Park, PhD, of Harvard Medical School. Working with collaborators from across the U.S., U.K. and the Netherlands, Elledge, Cichowski and their teams are looking to understand why genetic faults only affect certain tissues.
If someone carries a potentially cancer-causing gene mutation, this fault can exist in every cell of the body, but it only causes specific cancers. For example, mutations in the BRCA gene—among the most well-known inherited genetic defects that can lead to cancer—increase risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. Elledge and his colleagues will study why this is the case and use their findings to identify ways to prevent or treat cancer in these organs.
In addition to funding from Cancer Research UK—the world's leading independent charity dedicated to cancer research—the team’s project is also supported by The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to accelerating cures for cancer by integrating discoveries in biology with innovative technology.
