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This year’s Sjöberg Prize of one million dollars is awarded to professor Kevan Shokat, University of California, USA. Ten years ago, he became the first person to succeed in blocking one of the mutated proteins that cause most cancer cases. This is a huge scientific breakthrough that is bringing hope to people who are critically ill with lung cancer.
It has long been known that mutations in specific genes cause cancer. The most common of these oncogenes is a family that consists of the three Ras genes. Overall, it is thought that 20 per cent of all cancers are caused by RAS mutations, including 30 per cent of all lung cancer and 80 per cent of all pancreatic cancer.
For almost 40 years, researchers have tried to develop pharmaceuticals that can block the function of mutated Ras proteins, but this has proven very difficult and was previously regarded as, in principle, impossible.
There was therefore a great deal of attention when, in 2013, Kevan Shokat succeeded in developing the first inhibitor for a mutated Ras protein, K-Ras (G12C). He constructed a molecule that attached to the protein and locks it in an inactive state. This means that cell division ceases and the tumour stops growing.
This mutation causes a difficult-to-treat form of lung cancer that is particularly common among heavy smokers. The first pharmaceutical for lung cancer based on Shokat’s discovery was approved in the US in 2021. Compared to other treatments, it has been shown to lead to both an improved quality of life and a longer life expectancy by a month on average.
Like other cancer medications, not every patient responds to the treatment and there are signs that tumours may become drug resistant. However, intensive development work is continuing to further improve this first-generation pharmaceutical.
“The start of a new era”
“This is the start of an entirely new era, in which we will build upon this initial discovery. It has already been of great importance to people with lung cancer and, in the future, it may be of great importance for other patient groups whose cancer is caused by mutated Ras proteins,” says Urban Lendahl, professor of genetics at Karolinska Institutet and member of the Prize Committee.
Kevan Shokat is delighted to have been awarded the Sjöberg Prize, for which the majority of the prize money, 900,000 US dollars, forms a grant to fund continued research.
“The way the award is structured provides a substantial amount for research. This is the biggest grant I’ve ever seen, so it’s going to make a big difference to our research. I really appreciate how it was put together”, he says in a comment.
Prize citation
”for discoveries that enable the inhibition of mutated K-Ras in cancer treatment.”
About the laureate
Kevan M. Shokat was born in Boulder City, Nevada, USA, in 1964. He was awarded a Ph.D. in organic chemistry by the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991. He is now Professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, Professor of Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, and Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Kevan Shokat, University of California
About the prize
The Sjöberg Prize is awarded as a partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Sjöberg Foundation, with the Sjöberg Foundation financing the prize. The Prize was established using a donation from businessman Bengt Sjöberg, who died from cancer in 2017. The aim of the donation was to promote scientific research that primarily focuses on cancer, health and the environment and the prize is donated annually to one or more people who have made decisive contributions to cancer research. The prize comprises 100,000 US dollars as a personal prize, and 900,000 US dollars for continued research. The Sjöberg Prize for 2023 will be awarded at the Academy’s Annual meeting on 31 March.
Read more about the prize
You can find photos to download and a prize video which can be embeded at www.kva.se
Contact
Experts
Urban Lendahl, Professor of Genetics at Karolinska Institutet
urban.lendahl@ki.se
+46 (0)70 844 6512
Jan Nyman, Associate Professor and consultant at Sahlgrenska University Hospital
jan.nyman@oncology.gu.se
+46 (0)70 917 0387
https://www.kva.se/en/prizes/sjoberg-prize/about-the-sjoberg-prize/
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