Swanlund Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and Molecular and Integrative Physiology Benita Katzenellenbogen has received the 2009 Susan G. Komen for the Cure Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction for her work investigating breast cancer treatments.
This is the highest award of merit given by the nation’s leading breast cancer advocacy organization.
Katzenellenbogen is being honored for pivotal laboratory work that led to a better understanding of how drugs like tamoxifen and raloxifene work on a molecular level to fight and prevent certain breast cancers.
These drugs fight the hormone sensitive breast cancers that account for 70 percent of all breast cancers. The survival rates for all breast cancers is now 89 percent, largely due to the successful use of these hormone therapies before and after surgery.
Katzenenellenbogen, along with the other two honorees, will deliver a keynote lecture and be honored at the 32nd annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, a major international gathering of breast cancer researchers, clinicians and patient advocacy organizations. She will receive a cash award of $25,000.
Benita S. Katzenellenbogen is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recently served as president of The Endocrine Society, the world's largest professional society representing approximately 10,000 endocrinologists. She has published more than 270 research articles and co-edited a book on “Hormone-Dependent Cancer.” During her career she has received 5 different Komen grants.
The Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction was established in 1992 to recognize the efforts of pioneers in two critically important areas of the fight to end breast cancer: clinical research and basic science. Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.