iMig Research Award

2023: 

2021: Didier Jean, PhD – Dr Jean is senior author on a paper that used an original deconvolution of mesothelioma transcriptomes on a large series of malignant pleural mesotheliomas and found a new basis to depict mesothelioma tumor heterogeneity as a continuum that combined epithelioid and sarcomatoid components. This continuous, non-discrete representation of mesothelioma characteristics is linked to prognosis and to the immune tumor context and, therefore, is of interest for advanced targeted therapies (Blum et al., Nat Commun. 2019). Following this paper, Dr Jean published an invited paper in Molecular and Cellular Oncology (Blum et al., Mol Cell Oncol. 2019). This novel approach to mesothelioma classification represents the work of multidisciplinary research arising from investigators profoundly involved with mesothelioma

2018: Haining Yang, MD, PhD – Dr Yang discovered critical basic mechanisms of asbestos carcinogenesis, and she has played a critical role in elucidating the role of genetics and BAP1 in mesothelioma. The significance of Dr. Yang’s findings can be appreciated by noting that for over 50 years researchers had tried to understand how asbestos caused malignancy. Dr Yang is credited with providing a novel mechanistic explanation to address this question through a set of specific molecular changes that are induced by asbestos and that over the course of years may lead to tumor development. Dr Yang’s senior-author paper (Napolitano et al., Oncogene 2016) showed that HMGB1 is a biomarker of asbestos exposure. She also demonstrated that mesothelioma cells actively secrete isoforms of HMGB1 that differ from the isoforms found in the serum of asbestos-exposed individuals.

2016: Raphael Bueno, MD – Dr Bueno was awarded the inaugural iMig Research Award for his recent published genomic analysis of mesothelioma, a monumental study that capped years of work by Dr. Bueno and his research group on the genomics of mesothelioma. The comprehensive study represents a major advance in understanding mesothelioma and will enable many groups to pursue promising leads for the diagnosis, prediction, and treatment of mesothelioma. For this major contribution, Dr. Bueno and his group was a fitting choice for this new award. Dr. Bueno is Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.