TAU professor wins first Olav Thon Prize
Prof. Yosef Shiloh has been awarded NIS 1.3 million for his research on the genetics of cancer.
Professor Yosef Shiloh from Tel Aviv University has been awarded the first Olav Thon Prize for natural sciences and medicine. Prof. Shiloh,whose research focuses on genetic predisposition to cancer, will be awarded 2.5 million Norwegian Krones (approximately US$330,000) at a ceremony which will be held in Norway on March 5th, 2015.
Prof. Shiloh holds the David and Inez Myers Chair for Cancer Genetics at Tel Aviv University's Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. He is also a member of the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities. In 2011 he recieved the American Association of Cancer Research GHA Clowes Award, as well as the Israel Prize.
The Olav Thon Prize was established by Norwegian billionaire and real estate developer Olav Thon, currently the richest man in Norway. A year ago Thon announced that he would donate his entire fortune to charity, focusing in particular on education and the sciences.
The genetics of cancer
"Ever since I was a PhD student, my academic career has been devoted to studying ataxia-telangiectasia, or "A-T," said Prof. Shiloh. "It's a rare, difficult, degenerative disease. People suffer from it all over the world, but there's a particularly high concentration of cases in Israel, in Jewish and Arab communities. The disease damages the nervous system as well as the immune system and increases the likelihood of cancer due to a problem with DNA-repairing mechanisms. We first discovered the protein responsible for the cancer-inducing process in 1995, at our laboratory at Tel Aviv University."
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