Can­cer R&D stars Jim Al­li­son, Tasuku Hon­jo award­ed No­bel prize for im­munother­a­py dis­cov­er­ies

Im­munother­a­py pi­o­neers James Al­li­son and Tasuku Hon­jo has joint­ly won the 2018 No­bel prize in phys­i­ol­o­gy and med­i­cine “for their dis­cov­ery of can­cer ther­a­py by in­hi­bi­tion of neg­a­tive im­mune reg­u­la­tion.”

Al­li­son, now a pro­fes­sor at MD An­der­son and an af­fil­i­ate of the Park­er In­sti­tute, came to fame for his pi­o­neer­ing idea to un­leash a T cell at­tack on can­cer cells by block­ing the pro­tein CT­LA-4. Hon­jo, a long­time fac­ul­ty at Ky­oto Uni­ver­si­ty, is cred­it­ed with the dis­cov­ery of PD-1 on the sur­face of T cells — which has been the ba­sis of most check­point ther­a­pies cur­rent­ly on the mar­ket.

Endpoints News

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.