| 1 | Name: | Dr. Susan Band Horwitz | |
| Institution: | Albert Einstein College of Medicine | ||
| Year Elected: | 2013 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1937 | ||
Dr. Susan Band Horwitz was born in Boston where she grew up and attended public high school. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College, she attended Brandeis University where she received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Departments of Pharmacology at Tufts University Medical School, Emory University Medical School and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She joined the faculty at Albert Einstein in 1970 and is presently the Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research, Co-Chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and the Associate Director for Therapeutics at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center. Dr. Horwitz has had a continuing interest in natural products as a source of new drugs for the treatment of cancer. Her contributions span several decades of research and encompass agents which have served as prototypes for some of our most important drugs that are currently in clinical use. She made major contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms of action of camptothecin, the epipodophyllotoxins and bleomycin. However, Dr. Horwitz’ most seminal research contribution has been in the development of Taxol, a drug isolated from the yew plant, Taxus brevifolia. Although no one was interested in Taxol when she began her studies, today it is an important antitumor drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of ovarian, breast and lung carcinomas. The drug has been given to over a million patients. Dr. Horwitz' research played an important role in encouraging the development of Taxol by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Horwitz is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received numerous honors and awards including the Cain Memorial Award of the AACR, the ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics, the C. Chester Stock Award from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize from Harvard Medical School, The American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor -Clinical Research Award, The Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science & Technology, the Barnard Medal of Distinction, and the 2014 John Scott Science Award. In 2011, Dr. Horwitz received the AACR Lifetime Achievement Award in Cancer Research and The New York Academy Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Biomedical Science. She served as president (2002-2003) of the American Association of Cancer Research. Susan Horwitz was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |||