Dr. Charles L. Sawyers is a distinguished physician-scientist and global leader in molecular oncology whose transformative work has reshaped cancer treatment paradigms worldwide. He currently serves as the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center while maintaining his position as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2002. After earning his BA from Princeton University in 1981 and his MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1985, he completed an internal medicine residency at the University of California San Francisco before establishing his independent research career at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Sawyers' trajectory from fundamental research to clinical impact exemplifies the ideal physician-scientist, bridging laboratory discoveries with therapeutic applications for patients facing devastating malignancies.
Dr. Sawyers pioneered the development of molecularly targeted cancer therapies that established precision oncology as the standard of care for multiple cancer types. His seminal work on ABL kinase inhibitors, particularly imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia and the second-generation dasatinib to overcome resistance, demonstrated how targeting specific molecular drivers could selectively eliminate cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. He co-discovered the antiandrogen drugs enzalutamide, approved by the FDA in 2012, and apalutamide, approved in 2019, which have dramatically improved survival outcomes for patients with advanced prostate cancer. These breakthroughs earned him the 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award alongside Brian J. Druker and Nicholas Lydon, recognizing the paradigm-shifting nature of their work that transformed cancer from a fatal diagnosis to a manageable condition for many patients.
Beyond his direct therapeutic discoveries, Dr. Sawyers has been instrumental in shaping the broader cancer research ecosystem through visionary leadership in data sharing initiatives and collaborative science. He conceived and launched the AACR Project GENIE, a groundbreaking international tumor sequencing registry that now encompasses genomic data from over 121,000 patients and more than 136,000 tumors, accelerating precision oncology research globally. As a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, he continues to guide national cancer research priorities while his laboratory actively investigates mechanisms of cancer drug resistance with the goal of developing next-generation therapies. Dr. Sawyers' enduring legacy lies in his ability to bridge fundamental biological insights with clinical applications, establishing a model for translational research that continues to inspire and direct the next generation of cancer scientists worldwide.
