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Mike Price Gold Medal Award
The European Association for Cancer Research’s Mike Price Gold Medal Award is a biennial award recognising a senior researcher who has made exceptional contributions to the progress of cancer research in Europe.
The Mike Price Gold Medal Award was created in 2012 in memory of Professor Mike Price, Secretary General of the EACR for 21 years, who died of cancer in 2000. The Award Winner gives a keynote lecture at the EACR Congress and receives a commemorative medal and €10,000 honorarium.
2022 Mike Price Gold Medal will be awarded to Professor Cédric Blanpain
We are delighted to announce that Professor Cédric Blanpain is the winner of the 2022 Mike Price Gold Medal Award. The 2022 award will be presented at the 28th Congress of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR 2022), in Seville in June 2022, where Professor Blanpain will present the Keynote Award Lecture.
About the winner
Cédric Blanpain is MD/PhD and board certified in internal medicine from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Cédric Blanpain is full professor, WELBIO investigator and director of the laboratory of stem cells and cancer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His research group uses lineage-tracing approaches to study the role of stem cells during development, homeostasis and cancer. His group uncovered the existence of stem cells and progenitors acting during homeostasis and repair of the epidermis and uncovered a novel paradigm of lineage segregation in the mammary gland and prostate.
His lab was a pioneer in using mouse genetics to identify the cancer cell of origin of epithelial cancers. They identified the cancer cell of origin and the mechanisms regulating the early steps of tumor initiation in skin basal cell carcinoma, skin squamous cell carcinoma and mammary tumors. His lab developed novel approaches to unravel tumor heterogeneity and understand the mechanisms regulating the tumor states responsible for tumor growth, metastasis and resistance to anti-cancer therapy.
Previous recipients of the Award:
2020: Pier Giuseppe Pelicci
2018: Karen Vousden
2016: Michael Stratton
2014: Harald zur Hausen
2012: José Baselga
Click here to see more about the previous winners of the Mike Price Gold Medal Award
Above: 2022 winner Cédric Blanpain
Who was Mike Price?
The Mike Price Gold Medal Award commemorates the life and work of perhaps the most significant figure in the EACR’s history. Mike Price served as Secretary General of the EACR for 21 years. He died in 2000 after fighting bravely for just over a year against an unusual form of cancer. Edith Olah, EACR President at the time, wrote that his death brought immense sadness to all the many members of the EACR who knew and loved him.
Mike Price was an excellent educator and countless students benefitted from his enthusiasm and understanding. Among many initiatives, he was instrumental in setting up the EACR Travel Fellowship programme which continues to give young scientists the opportunity to visit and train in centres of excellence throughout Europe and beyond.
