Members of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine sit in front of a screen displaying James P Allison (L) and Tasuku Honju, the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, during a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 1, 2018. [Photo: Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP]
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been announced by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm, Sweden.
Secretary-General of the Nobel Committee Thomas Perlmann made the announcement.
"The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation," said Thomas Perlmann.
Nobel Committee Member Klas Karre, a professor of molecular immunology, summed up the achievements of the two winners with a metaphor.
"It is all about interference with the brakes of our immune system as a means to unleash this defence."
James Allison studied a known protein that functions as a brake on the immune system. He realized the potential of releasing the brake and thereby unleashing our immune cells to attack tumors. He then developed this concept into a brand new approach for treating patients.
Meanwhile, Tasuku Honjo discovered a protein on immune cells and after careful exploration of its function, eventually revealed that it also operates as a brake, but with a different mechanism of action. Therapies based on his discovery proved to be strikingly effective in cancer treatment. Millions of patients will benefit from their discoveries.
Allison was born in Texas in 1948, and has been a professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston since 2012.
Tasuku Honjo was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1942. Since 1984, he has been a professor at Kyoto University. He was a Faculty Dean from 1996-2000 and from 2002 -2004 at Kyoto University.
They will receive their prize from the hands of the Swedish King Karl XVI Gustaf on December 10. This was the first Nobel Prize to be announced for this year.
Today, the Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced, followed by the Chemistry prize on Wednesday. This year there will be no Nobel Prize in Literature. The peace prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday and the Economic Prize in memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced on 8th of Oct.
Dr. Jagannadha K. Sastry presenting Dr. James P. Allison with IACAN’s Lifetime of Service Award.
HOUSTON: The Board of Directors of the Indian American Cancer Network, a cancer resource network in Houston, TX, today congratulates Dr. James P. Allison on being awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation. Dr. Allison was also recently awarded a Lifetime of Service Award for these accomplishments in cancer research at IACAN’s Biennial Gala on September 8, 2018.
Dr. Allison’s research discoveries launched a revolutionary new approach to fighting cancer, by treating the immune system rather than the tumor. Immunotherapy is emerging as the fourth pillar to fighting cancer, along with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The Keynote Address for the gala was given by Dr. Patrick Hwu, Division Head of Cancer Medicine at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Hwu’s address highlighted the complex research in immunotherapies in a simplified and effective manner. “IACAN is beyond proud of this recognition for Dr. Allison’s achievements and contributions to cancer research” says Arlene Thomas, President of IACAN. He shares the 2018 Nobel Prize with Tasuko Honjo of Japan, a professor at Kyoto University.
About IACAN: The Indian American Cancer Network is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to be cancer resource network that educates and supports the Indian American community.
For more information about IACAN please visit www.iacannetwork.org
Tasuku Honjo
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2018
Born: 27 January 1942, Kyoto, Japan
Affiliation at the time of the award: Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Prize motivation: "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation."
Prize share: 1/2
Life
Tasuku Honjo was born in Kyoto, Japan. He studied medicine at Kyoto University and received his PhD there in 1975. During the 1970s he also worked in the United States at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, DC, and at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, with which he also was later associated as a visiting research fellow. In Japan he has worked at Tokyo University, Osaka University and Kyoto University, where he has been a professor since 1984.
Work
Cancer kills millions of people every year and is one of humanity’s greatest health challenges. By stimulating the inherent ability of our immune system to attack tumor cells Tasuku Honjo and James Allison have established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy. In 1992, Honjo discovered a protein on immune cells and, after careful exploration of its function, eventually revealed that it operates as a brake on the immune system. Therapies based on his discovery proved to be strikingly effective in the fight against cancer.
James P. Allison
Immunologist
James Patrick Allison is an American immunologist and Nobel laureate who holds the position of professor and chair of immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. His discoveries have led to new cancer treatments for the deadliest cancers. He is also the director of the Cancer Research Institute scientific advisory council. He has a longstanding interest in mechanisms of T-cell development and activation, the development.
T cell discoveries led to game-changing treatment revolutionizing cancer care
MD Anderson News Release October 01, 2018
Jim Allison, Ph.D., chair of Immunology and executive director of the immunotherapy platform at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, today was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for launching an effective new way to attack cancer by treating the immune system rather than the tumor. Allison is the first MD Anderson scientist to receive the world’s most preeminent award for outstanding discoveries in the fields of life sciences and medicine.
“By stimulating the ability of our immune system to attack tumor cells, this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy,” the Nobel Assembly of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm noted in announcing the award to Allison and Tasuku Honjo, M.D., Ph.D., of Kyoto University in Japan.
“I’m honored and humbled to receive this prestigious recognition,” Allison said. “A driving motivation for scientists is simply to push the frontiers of knowledge. I didn’t set out to study cancer, but to understand the biology of T cells - these incredible cells travel our bodies and work to protect us.”
Allison started his career at MD Anderson in 1977, arriving as one of the first employees of a new basic science research center located in Smithville, Texas. He was recruited back to MD Anderson in November 2012 to lead the Immunology Department and to establish an immunotherapy research platform for MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program.
“Jim Allison’s accomplishments on behalf of patients cannot be overstated,” said MD Anderson President Peter WT Pisters, M.D. “His research has led to life-saving treatments for people who otherwise would have little hope. The significance of immunotherapy as a form of cancer treatment will be felt for generations to come.”
The prize recognizes Allison’s basic science discoveries on the biology of T cells, the adaptive immune system’s soldiers, and his invention of immune checkpoint blockade to treat cancer.
Allison’s crucial insight was to block a protein on T cells that acts as a brake on their activation, freeing the T cells to attack cancer. He developed an antibody to block the checkpoint protein CTLA-4 and demonstrated the success of the approach in experimental models. His work led to development of the first immune checkpoint inhibitor drug. Ipilimumab was approved for late-stage melanoma by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2011.
His drug, known commercially as Yervoy, became the first to extend the survival of patients with late-stage melanoma. Follow-up studies show 20 percent of those treated live for at least three years with many living for 10 years and beyond, unprecedented results. Subsequent research has extended this approach to new immune regulatory targets, most prominently PD-1 and PD-L1, with drugs approved to treat certain types and stages of melanoma, lung, kidney, bladder, gastric, liver, cervical, colorectal, and head and neck cancers and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Clinical trials are underway in many other cancer types.
“I never dreamed my research would take the direction it has,” Allison said. “It’s a great, emotional privilege to meet cancer patients who’ve been successfully treated with immune checkpoint blockade. They are living proof of the power of basic science, of following our urge to learn and to understand how things work.”
“Science advances on the efforts of many,” Allison said. “A succession of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and colleagues at MD Anderson, the University of California, Berkeley, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center played important roles in this research.”
Allison’s ongoing leadership at MD Anderson focuses on improving knowledge of how these drugs work to extend the benefits of immunotherapy to more patients with more types of cancer. He continues his own research, focusing on the details of immune response to cancer and identifying new targets for potential treatment.
He also leads the immunotherapy platform for MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program™, which conducts immune monitoring by analyzing tumor samples before, during and after treatment, aiming to understand why these drugs work for some patients but not for others. The platform works with more than 100 immunotherapy clinical trials at MD Anderson addressing a variety of cancers. The platform also collaborates with pharmaceutical companies to help them develop new drugs and combinations to better treat cancer.
“We need these drugs to work for more people,” Allison said. “One challenge is that the clinical success has outrun our scientific knowledge of how these drugs work and how they might best be combined with other therapies to improve treatment and reduce unwanted side effects. We need more basic science research to do that.”
Allison has collaboratively worked with scientists around the globe to expand the field of immunotherapy. Some of his leadership positions include serving as a co-leader of the Stand Up To Cancer-Cancer Research Institute Cancer Immunology Dream Team and as a director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI). Allison also is deputy director of the David H Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers at MD Anderson and holds the Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair in Immunology.
Crucial funding for his research over the years has come from the National Institutes of Health, particularly the National Cancer Institute, the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Cancer Research Institute, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Stand Up to Cancer and PICI.
Allison will be honored at Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm in December. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded 108 times to 214 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2017.
For more information about Allison, his work and the Moon Shots Program, please visit mdanderson.org/nobelprize.
