Korsmeyer received the 20th annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research on April 23 in New York City. The award includes a cash prize and a silver medallion. The Eli Lilly Co. established the award in 1961 to honor G.H.A. Clowes, a founding member of the AACR and a research director of Eli Lilly. Korsmeyer has identified the genes responsible for many common cancers and has shed new light on the problem of tumor cell resistance to chemotherapy. He also discovered some of the genes that control programmed cell death, or apoptosis.
Researchers hope the new understanding of cell death can lead to improved cancer-fighting drugs.
Korsmeyer, who joined the School of Medicine in 1986, is an investigator for the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a foundation that funds top researchers across the country. He has published more than 175 scientific papers, and he serves on the board of directors of the AACR and the board of scientific counselors of the National Cancer Institute.