Skip to main content
Close
Vilcek Foundation
  • About
    • About

      The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences.

    • Our Mission
    • Board & Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prizes

      The Vilcek Foundation Prizes are awarded to foreign-born individuals for extraordinary achievement in the arts and sciences.

    • About the Prizes

      Learn more about the Vilcek Foundation Prizes and the prizewinners.

    • Vilcek Prizes

      Awarded to immigrants with a legacy of major accomplishments.

    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

      Awarded to young immigrant professionals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement early in their careers.

    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence

      Awarded to immigrants who have had a significant impact on American society, or to individuals who are dedicated champions of immigrant causes.

    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
Sign Up Search
Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Joan Massagué

Joan Massagué

2006 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science

Location

New York, NY

Title

Chairman of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;

Professor, Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences;

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Area(s) of Research

The control of cell growth and fate by the TGF-beta family of growth factors

Education

University of Barcelona (PhD, Biochemistry)

Country of Birth

Spain

Tags
biochemistry biology cell biology cell growth dna genetics Howard Hughes Medical Institute Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Spain
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

A portrait of Joan Massague, wearing a suit and tie, against a white background.

Joan Massagué is chairman of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, professor at the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in New York.

Internationally recognized for his work on the control of cell growth and fate by the TGF-(beta) family of growth factors, Massagué and his colleagues elucidated fundamental machinery that conveys growth inhibitory signals from the cell membrane to the nucleus. Combining biochemistry and genetics, Massagué identified the TGF-(beta) receptors and their mechanism of activation. TGF-(beta) signaling mechanisms are now known to be crucial in embryonic development, and their disruption contributes to tumor formation and metastasis. The latter are current topics of investigation by Massagué, who has published over 200 research articles on these subjects, and his group.

Massagué received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Barcelona. He was a research fellow at Brown University until 1982, when he joined the Faculty of Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; he assumed his current position in 1989. He served in the advisory boards of the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Searle Foundation and the General Motors Prize Foundation, and in the editorial boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Cell Biology, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Massagué is an elected Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign Associate of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

 

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999)
Tags
biochemistry biology cell biology cell growth dna genetics Howard Hughes Medical Institute Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Spain
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Related Prize Recipients

Titia de Lange

Titia de Lange receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for seminal contributions to the biology of telomeres—the aiglet-like structures that protect the ends of chromosomes in living cells—and for discovering telomere-binding proteins that help ensure genome stability and prevent tumor formation.
Titia de Lange

Antonio Giraldez

Antonio Giraldez receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for uncovering molecular mechanisms underlying embryonic development, which unfolds after fertilization of egg cells, and unveiling the dynamic role of tiny snippets of RNA called microRNAs in this process.
Antonio Giraldez

Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado

Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for his contributions to the field of regeneration—from the identification of crucial genes that control regeneration in living organisms, to the potential for regenerative medicine to treat disease.
Portrait of Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado.

You may also be interested in

March 19, 2020

Kivanç Birsoy: “I feel like I contribute—at least—to the understanding of this disease”

Kivanç Birsoy’s research at The Rockefeller University focuses on cancer cell metabolism and its therapeutic applications.
Kivanc Birsoy is the head of Birsoy lab at Rockefeller University
March 2, 2020

Martin Jonikas: “Having a Diversity of Backgrounds Makes Us More Creative and Productive”

Martin Jonikas was born in Paris to parents of Polish origin. He grew up enamored with machines and flight. While pursuing an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from MIT, a required course in molecular biology awakened in him a true passion for the mechanics of living organisms.
Martin Jonikas, 2020 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise winner, on a New Jersey farm.
February 8, 2019

Mutations and Multiplication: Angelika Amon Unravels Cell Division

“We showed how the cell cycle is interconnected,” Angelika says, “and how one cell cycle phase sets up the next one.”
A photo of Angelika Amon

Join our mailing list

Sign Up
Vilcek Foundation
21 East 70th Street
New York, New York 10021

Phone: 212.472.2500

Email: info@vilcek.org

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board and Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise
    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence
    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
  • Careers
Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Vimeo
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
© 2023   Vilcek Foundation