March 2016 - In 2016 the iCMLf Directors and a panel of previous prize winners, have named two renowned scientists as the recipients of the 2016 Rowley Prize: Professor John Groffen and Professor Nora Heisterkamp. This prestigious award celebrates the people who have made outstanding lifetime contributions to the understanding of the biology of CML.

Dr Groffen and Dr Heisterkamp are recognised as co-discoverers of the genes that are directly involved in the t(9;22) Philadelphia (Ph) translocation found in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). They localized the human c-ABL gene on chromosome 9 and molecularly cloned and mapped the gene. By isolation of breakpoint fragments, they showed that the ABL gene becomes fused to sequences on the Ph-chromosome in CML. They molecularly cloned this region on chromosome 22 and named it the “breakpoint cluster region" (BCR) gene. Further studies with null mutant bcr mice were undertaken to elucidate the normal cellular function of Bcr.

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March 2016 - The iCMLf awards the 2016 Goldman Prize to Professor Hagop Kantarjian in recognition of his groundbreaking discoveries, including new targeted-therapies that improved prognosis and survival in patients with CML. The annual Goldman Prize awarded in honour of Professor John Goldman, acknowledges outstanding lifetime contributions to the management of patients with CML.

As a clinical-translational researcher, Professor Kantarjian has contributed to significant improvements in the treatment of various leukemias, including the development and testing of first- and second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors. He was a key investigator in clinical trials that led to the approval of imatinib as a treatment for CML. “I try to identify leads in the leukemia laboratory research that can be translated into clinical investigations that advance the care and cure in leukemias”, he explains about his approach.

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