William G. Kaelin, Jr.

William G. Kaelin, Jr. is a distinguished professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He obtained his undergraduate and M.D. degrees from Duke University and completed his training in internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he also served as chief medical resident. Kaelin was a clinical fellow in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a postdoctoral fellow in David Livingston’s laboratory. He is a McDonnell Scholar and has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1998. Kaelin’s research focuses on understanding how mutations in tumor suppressor proteins cause cancer, with significant contributions including work on the VHL protein that led to the clinical testing of VEGF inhibitors for kidney cancer, and insights into how cells sense and respond to changes in oxygen. His group also demonstrated that leukemic transformation by mutant IDH is reversible and discovered how thalidomide-like drugs kill myeloma cells by degrading transcription factors. Kaelin received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and is a member of several prestigious organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the American College of Physicians. He has previously served on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors, the AACR Board of Trustees, and the Institute of Medicine National Cancer Policy Board. His numerous awards include the Paul Marks Prize, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Prize, the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist award, the 2010 Canada International Gairdner Award, the ASCI’s Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award, the Scientific Grand Prix of the Foundation Lefoulon-Delalande, the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Steven C. Beering Award, the AACR Princess Takamatsu Award, the ASCO Science of Oncology Award, the Helis Award, the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Prize, and the Massry Prize.