Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D. - 2019 Recipient
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D. attended Bryn Mawr College, then received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Departments of Pharmacology at Tufts Medical School, Emory Medical School and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She joined the faculty at Albert Einstein in 1970 and is presently a Distinguished Professor and the Rose C. Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research.
Although no one was interested in Taxol® when Dr. Horwitz began her studies, today it is an important antitumor drug that has been given to over a million patients.
Dr. Horwitz has a continuing interest in natural products as a source of new drugs. Her contributions span several decades of research and encompass agents which have served as prototypes for some of our most important drugs. Dr. Horwitz’ most seminal research contribution has been in the development of Taxol®, a drug isolated from the yew tree, Taxus brevifolia. Although no one was interested in Taxol® when she began her studies, today it is an important antitumor drug that has been given to over a million patients. Dr. Horwitz, her students and postdoctoral fellows made the discovery that Taxol® had a unique mechanism of action and suggested that it was a prototype for a new class of antitumor drugs.
Dr. Horwitz has received numerous honors and awards including the C. Chester Stock Award from Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize from Harvard Medical School, The Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research, The American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor and the AACR Lifetime Achievement Award in Cancer Research.
From 2002-2003, Dr. Horwitz served as president of the American Association of Cancer Research. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.