The American Association for Cancer Research announced the winners of this year’s Scientific Achievement Awards, which recognize scientists and clinicians who have made significant contributions to our understanding of the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer. Congratulations to three Damon Runyon alumni for receiving this honor.

Elaine V. Fuchs, PhD (Damon Runyon Board Member, Damon Runyon Fellow ’77-’79) AACR G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Awardee for ​ discovering how normal skin stem cells maintain homeostasis and participate in wound repair, and for unraveling how the tumor microenvironment and oncogenic stress impacts tumor-initiating stem cell malignancy and resistance.

Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ’08-’13) AACR-Waun Ki Hong Awardee for Outstanding Achievement in Translational and Clinical Cancer Research ​for elucidating the relationship of COX-2 overexpression and aspirin use for the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer and for establishing current clinical guidelines for precision chemoprevention in colorectal cancer.

Cornelis J.M. Melief, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ’73-’75) AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Awardee in Cancer Immunology for deciphering how the immune system recognizes cancer antigens and activates anti-tumor responses, and developing and optimizing innovative combination immunotherapies.

This post was originally published by Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. It is republished with permission.