Scott A. Armstrong | |
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Born | Lawton, Oklahoma, US |
Academic background | |
Education | BSc, chemistry, 1989, University of Oklahoma MD, PhD, 1994, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
Thesis | Molecular and biochemical characterization of Rab geranylgeranyl transferase (1994) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Dana–Farber Cancer Institute Boston Children's Hospital Harvard Medical School Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Weill Cornell Medical College |
Website | armstronglab |
Scott Allen Armstrong is an American pediatric oncologist and cancer biologist focused on chromatin-based control of gene expression in cancer and therapeutic discovery. Armstrong and his team were the first to isolate rare leukemia stem cells in a mouse model of leukemia.
Armstrong was raised in Lawton,Oklahoma and Duncan,Oklahoma and attended Duncan High School. As a student,he was encouraged to apply for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation's Sir Alexander Fleming Scholar Program which he described as having a "huge impact on my life." [1]
Following high school,Armstrong majored in chemistry at the University of Oklahoma and completed a dual medical degree/PhD program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where he studied with Nobel Laureates Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein. [2] Following this,Armstrong was the recipient of the 2000 American Society of Hematology Scholar Award Fellowship. [3]
As an instructor in pediatric oncology at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute,Armstrong's scientific focus was on the genetic abnormalities that are common in childhood leukemias. In 2001,he was the lead investigator on a study researching gene expression patterns to treat cancer. [4] [5] The following year,Armstrong published a landmark study in Nature Genetics which demonstrated that mixed-lineage leukemia (MLLs) exhibited a unique expression signature. A few years later,he also showed how the FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 was highly expressed and often mutated in MLLs. [6] Armstrong and his team also became the first to isolate rare leukemia stem cells in a mouse model of leukemia. [7]
As a result of his genome-wide technologies to characterize the molecular pathways responsible for leukemia development,Armstrong was elected a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation [8] and was the recipient of the 2011 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. [7] Later that year,his research team collaborated with a biotechnology company to develop a drug that could deactivate cancer-promoting genes and halt the growth of cancer. [9] The following year,Armstrong was named the incumbent of the Grayer Family Chair at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). [10] By 2014,Armstrong became the Director of the Leukemia Center at MSK,where he also serves as Vice-Chair for Basic and Translational Research in Pediatrics and as a full member of the MSK Cancer Biology and Genetics Program. As a result of his "exceptional work in leukemia research and cancer stem cell biology," Armstrong was the recipient of the 2014 American Society of Hematology William Dameshek Prize. [6]
Armstrong eventually left MSK in 2016 to become the Chair of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute,and the David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute,Boston Children's Hospital,and Harvard Medical School. He also served as Associate Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Boston Children's Hospital. [11] While serving in these roles,Armstrong was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine [12] and awarded the 2019 Tobias Award Lecture from the International Society for Stem Cell Research. [13]
Sidney Farber was an American pediatric pathologist. He is regarded as the father of modern chemotherapy for his work using folic acid antagonists to combat leukemia,which led to the development of other chemotherapeutic agents against other malignancies. Farber was also active in cancer research advocacy and fundraising,most notably through his establishment of the Jimmy Fund,a foundation dedicated to pediatric research in childhood cancers. The Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is named after him.
Josep Baselga i Torres,known in Spanish as JoséBaselga was a Spanish medical oncologist and researcher focused on the development of novel molecular targeted agents,with a special emphasis in breast cancer. Through his career he was associated with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology,and the Massachusetts General Hospital in their hematology and oncology divisions. He led the development of the breast cancer treatment Herceptin,a monoclonal antibody,that targets the HER2 protein which is impacted in aggressive breast cancers.
Timothy J. Ley is an American hematologist and cancer biologist. He is the Lewis T. and Rosalind B. Apple Professor of Oncology in the Department of Medicine,and is chief of the Section of Stem Cell Biology in the Division of Oncology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a member of the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center.
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Stuart Holland Orkin is an American physician,stem cell biologist and researcher in pediatric hematology-oncology. He is the David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Orkin's research has focused on the genetic basis of blood disorders. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine,and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Kenneth C. Anderson is an American hematologist-oncologist and cancer researcher who is primarily known for advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma. He directs the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Myeloma Center at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and is the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair of the Joint Program in Transfusion Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Christoph Klein is a German Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist and Director at the Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital,Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich,Germany.
Robert Maki is an American medical oncologist,Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania,He is a specialist in the management of and translational research regarding sarcoma,the group of connective tissue malignancies that include leiomyosarcoma,gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST),liposarcoma,angiosarcoma,Ewing sarcoma,desmoid tumor and many others.
A. Thomas Look is Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Vice-Chair for Research,Pediatric Oncology,Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. He is a pioneer in the use of zebrafish in cancer research and made major contributions to the understanding of leukemia and neuroblastoma biology and pathogenesis.
Philip W. Kantoff is a medical oncologist. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Convergent Therapeutics. He served as the Chairman of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center between 2015 and 2021. He is best known for his contributions to the impact of DNA abnormalities in prostate cancer and the discovery of therapies for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.
Catherine J. Wu is an American physician-scientist who studies oncology. She is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of Division of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on longitudinal studies of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
Nirali N. Shah is an American physician-scientist and pediatric hematologist-oncologist,serving as head of the hematologic malignancies section of the pediatric oncology branch at the National Cancer Institute. She researches the translation of immunotherapeutic approaches to treat high-risk hematologic malignancies in children,adolescents and young adults.
Stephan A. Grupp is an American pediatric oncologist. He is the Chief of the Cell Therapy and Transplant Section in the Division of Oncology and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2019,Grupp was elected a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Levi A. Garraway is an American oncologist. His research team was among the first to adapt genomics technologies to enable scalable,high-throughput clinical approaches to cancer gene mutation profiling. As a result,he was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation,American Association for Cancer Research,and National Academy of Medicine.
Bob Löwenberg is a clinical hematologist/investigator. He is Professor of Hematology at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
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