Carl H. June Is Recipient of Inaugural Maria I. New International Prize for Biomedical Research
Annual award, created in honor of esteemed career of Dr. New, recognizes distinguished biomedical researchers for translational scientific research
Carl H. June, MD, winner of inaugural 2022 Maria I. New International Prize Scanning electron microscopy of anti-CD3/28 beads (yellow) stimulating CAR T cells (orange). Courtesy of Bruce Levine at Penn Medicine.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will award its inaugural 2022 Maria I. New International Prize for Biomedical Research to cancer and HIV cellular therapy pioneer Carl H. June, MD, for his groundbreaking work in immunotherapy. Dr. June is most widely known as one of the inventors of CAR T cell therapy for cancer, which has already led to FDA-approved treatments for lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma.
Dr. June will receive a prize of $20,000 and will present the Maria I. New Distinguished Lecture during a ceremony to be held in New York City in November.
Dr. June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, all at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The prize is meant to honor medical pioneers in the tradition of Dr. Maria I. New, whose achievements demonstrated over six decades of outstanding commitment to breakthrough research.
“Carl June’s discoveries helped usher a new era in cancer treatment options,” says Mone Zaidi, MD, PhD, MACP, Director of Mount Sinai's Center for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, and Mount Sinai Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who chaired the international jury that awarded the Maria I. New International Prize for Biomedical Research. “As its inaugural recipient, Carl exemplifies a distinguished scientist whose achievements have led to a transformative treatment paradigm for otherwise debilitating cancers, and by doing so, has upheld the legacy of Dr. Maria New and her lifetime contributions.”
Chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy (CAR T), which Dr. June helped create, is a type of cancer therapy that harnesses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. T cells, a type of white blood cell, are removed from the patient and reprogrammed to recognize and attack cancer cells when returned to the body. Today, six CAR T cell therapies have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and clinical trials targeting many additional cancers are underway worldwide.
In the early 1990s, Dr. June began studying T cells in HIV-positive patients and patients with AIDS. He discovered that he could take T cells from a patient with AIDS, grow them in the lab, give them back to the patient, and their T cell counts would improve. His “eureka” moment came when he realized these CAR T cells could survive in patients and multiply without spreading HIV.
“The pandemic has emphasized the importance of biomedical research. One critical way to accelerate medical innovation is to ensure that we’re recognizing leading biomedical researchers: they are at the forefront of advancements in medicine, seeking answers to the most pressing needs in human health and helping millions of people live longer, healthier lives,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning author and economic historian Dr. Daniel Yergin, who, along with his wife, foreign policy expert Dr. Angela Stent, generously supported the prize.
“We couldn’t be prouder of the prize, developed in honor of the revered Dr. New, a giant in pediatric endocrinology and a global role model in combining breakthrough research with clinical impact. And the extraordinarily impactful work of Carl June epitomizes the value of Maria New’s life work and the outstanding contributions to medicine that this award will recognize.”
Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, Dean for Academic Affairs at Icahn Mount Sinai, and Chief Scientific Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, says, “It is an honor for the Icahn School of Medicine to host this new biomedical research award in recognition of one of our long-time star faculty members.”
“Through this annual prize, we celebrate the values exemplified by Dr. New and her transformative research at both the bench and bedside for over 60 years while also recognizing the work of exceptional physician-scientists who have made or are likely to make seminal contributions to patient care,” Dr. Nestler says. “We are delighted to contribute to biomedical research with this award, which is open to applicants from around the world. And we are profoundly grateful to Dan Yergin and Angela Stent for making it possible.”
The prize winners are selected by an international jury of prominent science community members. It is administered by Mount Sinai’s Center for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, in conjunction with the Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Pharmacological Sciences, under the dedicated leadership of Dr. Zaidi.
The jury members are Nobel laureate Aaron Ciechanover, MD, DSc, Distinguished University Professor at The Rappaport Family Technion Integrated Cancer Center in Haifa, Israel; Nancy Andrews, MD, Executive Vice President, and Chief Scientific Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital; Nancy Brown, MD, Jean and David W. Wallace Dean, Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut; Bert W. O’Malley, MD, Tom Thompson Distinguished Service Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Chancellor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas; and Anna Wedell, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Genetics in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
“We extend our sincere gratitude to the distinguished members of the international jury for their precious time and effort in selecting a winner from a wide pool of outstanding nominees,” Dr. Zaidi says.
The Maria I. New International Prize for Biomedical Research
The Maria I. New International Prize for Biomedical Research was created in honor of the esteemed career of Maria I. New, MD, one of the world’s foremost pediatricians and a devoted member of the Mount Sinai community. It will be awarded annually to distinguished biomedical researchers for lifetime scientific achievements that have led, or may lead to, new ways to prevent and treat human disease. The award is generously supported by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and economic historian Dr. Daniel Yergin and his wife, foreign policy expert Dr. Angela Stent.
The nomination cycle for the 2023 Prize begins on February 1, 2023, and closes on May 31, 2023. To learn more about the nomination process, contact Susan Babunovic at susan.babunovic@mssm.edu.
Over the past half-century, Maria I. New, MD, has earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading pediatric endocrinologists. Her studies of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)—a deficiency in the adrenal system that causes gender ambiguity in females and precocious sexual development in males—have led to treatments to correct the disorder before the baby is born. Her groundbreaking identification of a new form of hypertension, “apparent mineralcorticoid excess,” has resulted in a new area of receptor biology.
Since joining the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City in 2004, Dr. New has continued her work as a Professor of Pediatrics and of Genetics and Genomic Sciences. She is also the Founding Director of Mount Sinai’s Adrenal Steroid Disorders Program.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences, among several other prestigious academies, Dr. New has demonstrated a lifetime dedication to biomedical research and clinical care, and her training of a generation of pediatricians and endocrinologists continues to have a far-reaching impact on the lives of patients and the medical community at large.
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