Block Lectureship Award celebrates 26th year
Over four decades ago, the family of Herbert J. and Maxine Block founded what has become a regionally prominent golf tournament that has raised over $6 million to support cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). The tournament was established in 1981 following the loss of their father, Herbert J. Block, to cancer – a disease that also claimed their mother, Maxine, in 1998.
Pictured from left: Julie Block Glassman, Jeff Block and Jeri Block at the 2018 Herbert J. Block Memorial TournamentBuilding on the success of the golf tournament, in 1992 the Block family established the Herbert and Maxine Block Memorial Lectureship Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer (the award bore only their father’s name until after their mother’s death six years later).
The Lectureship annually recognizes one of the leading cancer scientists in the world and has become one of the most prestigious awards in medicine. 2024 marks the 26th presentation of the Block Lectureship Award, with the honoree receiving a $50,000 prize. In addition to receiving the award, the honoree spends a full day at Ohio State sharing his or her work with OSUCCC – James physicians and researchers, as well as meeting with medical students.
Learn more about the Block Memorial Lectureship.An important component of the Lectureship is bringing world-class cancer discovery and research to the OSUCCC – James and showcasing its outstanding cancer program. “What makes the Lectureship so special has been the collaboration with The James,” says Jeri Block, mentioning her family’s work with former and current James CEOs and directors of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We’ve developed wonderful relationships with these people, and they inspire us to do even more to support our cancer program.”
The family points with pride to the impressive list of Block Lectureship Award recipients, including 2024 recipient Sir Paul Nurse, OM, CH, FRS, chief executive officer at the Francis Crick Institute in London. Dr. Nurse’s lab team studies regulatory networks that control the progression of events during the cell cycle. Understanding how cells properly manage mitosis (cell division) improves knowledge of conditions in which cell proliferation can lead to disease, such as cancer. Dr. Nurse has received numerous honors for his work, including the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Leland Hartwell, PhD, and Tim Hunt, PhD.
A few of the other stellar scientists who have received the Block Lectureship Award include:
- James Allison, PhD, professor and regental chair of the Department of Immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and a co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work on cancer therapy by inhibiting negative immune regulation. These findings became the foundation for immuno-oncology, the science of using the body’s immune system to detect and kill cancer cells. This has led to therapies for previously intractable cancers.
- Carol Greider, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University, a pioneer in the study of chromosome structure who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California at San Francisco and Dr. Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School for discovering “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.” Telomeres are protective “caps” on the ends of chromosomes. The telomerase enzyme is critical for the health and survival of cells and organisms.
- Mary-Claire King, PhD, of the University of Washington, a geneticist who was the first to show that breast cancer is inherited in some families because of mutations in a gene that she discovered and named BRCA1 (researchers later discovered a second breast cancer gene and named it BRCA2). Dr. King’s studies showed that more than 80% of women with BRCA1 mutations develop breast cancer by the age of 80.
- Judah Folkman, MD (deceased), of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, who earned his undergraduate degree at Ohio State and was widely considered to be “the father of angiogenesis” (blood vessel formation). In a 1971 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, he hypothesized that angiogenesis sustains tumors and helps them grow. This idea opened global avenues of investigation for stopping this process and inhibiting tumor growth.
- Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, of (then) Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, who has made significant research contributions in cancer genomics, drug resistance and genomics-driven (or “personalized”) cancer medicine. Dr. Garraway published the first gene-sequencing studies of aggressive prostate cancer and has led other major gene-sequencing initiatives in prostate cancer, melanoma, and head and neck cancers. Gene sequencing is a method of determining the genetic makeup of an organism or cell type.
- Bert Vogelstein, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, who is credited for being the first scientist to explain the molecular basis of a common human cancer. Dr. Vogelstein and colleagues demonstrated that colorectal tumors stem from accumulation of alterations in certain genes, a landmark in applying molecular biology to the study of human disease.
Another aspect of the Lectureship is the Junior Faculty Award, which enables a promising young cancer researcher at Ohio State to be mentored for two years by a Block Lectureship Award recipient. “The mentees wouldn’t have a chance to learn from these distinguished scientists were it not for the Junior Faculty Award,” says Jeff Block. “Ohio State has a world-class cancer program, and our family is honored to be associated with it,” says Julie Block Glassman.