Prestigious Horwitz Prize Awarded to Pioneers in Molecular Biology Columbia University President George Rupp presented two researchers with the Horwitz prize during Feb. 17 ceremonies in the Rotunda of the Low Memorial Library on the Morningside campus. Dr. Arnold Levine, president and CEO of Rockefeller University, and Dr. Bert Vogelstein, Clayton Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, were honored for decades of goundbreaking work devoted to discovering what molecular changes take place in the tumor suppressor gene p53. Disruption of p53's normal function is associated with an estimated 60 percent of human cancers. Displaying their awards, Horwitz prize winners, Drs. Bert Vogelstein, left, and Arnold Levine, right, are joined by, from left, Drs. George Rupp, president of Columbia University, Carol Prives, chairwoman of the Horwitz Prize committee, and Herbert Pardes, vice president of Health Sciences. Since 1967, the prize, which carries a monetary award of $22,000, is given annually for outstanding research in biology or biochemistry. Research previously recognized by other awards, such as the Nobel Prize, is not eligible. The Horwitz prize committee selected Drs. Levine and Vogelstein for the award in October. The research conducted in the laboratories of Drs. Levine and Volgelstein has made a major impact in the fields of cancer, genetics, and molecular biology. "Drs. Levine and Vogelstein have each made seminal and complementary contributions to the field of cancer research," says Dr. Carol Prives, Da Costa Professor of Biology at Columbia University and chairwoman of the Horwitz Prize committee. "Dr. Vogelstein demonstrated that p53 is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer and Dr. Levine demonstrated that p53 can prevent cancer-causing genes from turning normal cells into malignant ones. These two discoveries showed for the first time that p53 is a tumor suppressor protein." "Drs. Arnold Levine and Bert Vogelstein were awarded the Horwitz prize for their seminal work on the tumor repressor gene, p53," says Dr. Karen Antman, Wu Professor of Medicine and director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Applying molecular biology to the study of human disease, they and others have shown how cancers result from the accumulation of multiple genetic alterations. This work has created new opportunities for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment." "Drs. Levine and Vogelstein have made major advances in the field of cancer research," says Dr. Herbert Pardes, vice president for Health Sciences and dean of the Faculty of Medicine. "Their findings have contributed to our understanding of how cancer works and have had a profound influence on the development of weapons necessary to fight cancer battles on the front lines."