William Kaelin wants to understand how tumor suppressor gene mutations cause cancer. Kaelin and his team study the functions of the proteins encoded by specific tumor suppressor genes, with the long-term goal of helping to develop new anticancer therapies. Specifically, the team focuses on proteins associated with the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) cancer syndrome causing kidney cancers and blood vessel tumors of the brain and eye, and the retinoblastoma tumor-suppressor protein. The team uses genetic and biochemical approaches with both human and mouse cells, including genetically engineered mouse models.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute announced today that William G. Kaelin, Jr., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe of Oxford University and the Francis Crick Institute, and Gregg L. Semenza of Johns Hopkins University are the recipients of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. Lasker Award honors research showing how cells from humans and most animals sense and adapt to changes in oxygen availability.