Andrea Califano, Dr, Receives Reimann Honor Award

Andrea Califano, Dr, has received the Stanley P. Reimann Honor Award, the highest distinction from Fox Chase Cancer Center in recognition of his transformative contributions to cancer. Fox Chase bestows the Reimann Honor Award on individuals who bring exceptional ingenuity and expertise to the field of cancer research. 

Established in 1974, the award honors the legacy of Stanley P. Reimann, MD, founder of the Institute for Cancer Research, which merged that same year with American Oncologic Hospital to form Fox Chase Cancer Center.  Reimann Honor award recipients have included humanitarians, public health advocates, philanthropists, researchers, and business leaders—all united by a shared commitment to understanding, preventing, treating, and eradicating cancer. Califano now joins a distinguished list of 18 prior awardees. 

At the award ceremony on June 12, Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD, director of Fox Chase and the Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology Research, welcomed Califano and introduced his accomplishments. “It is my privilege to present this award on behalf of our entire Fox Chase community to Dr. Califano,” said Chernoff. “A pioneer in cancer genetics and cancer biology, Dr. Califano is internationally recognized for his work in the reverse engineering of gene regulatory networks. To summarize his career is difficult, but he was doing bioinformatics and computational biology before it was cool.” 

A physicist by training, Califano brings a unique lens to cancer research, working to map  an “assembly manual” of the cancer cell—the complex molecular networks that govern malignancy and the master regulators that sustain them. 

Califano’s lab focuses on what he has described as “quantum cancer biology”—a framework for identifying small molecule compounds and combinations that can disable master regulators. “Stanley Reimann thought that understanding how normal cells become tumorigenic was going to be the key to understanding and treating cancer,” Califano said in his remarks. “We should all really be proud of that vision because we still don’t completely understand it, but we’ve done a lot of work to try to do so.”  

After receiving the award, Califano gave a lecture outlining his lab’s work on reverse engineering in cells, demonstrating the importance of understanding the functions of both normal and cancerous cells. His work in this area has led to several clinical trials, including one in which patients were analyzed individually for 14 different untreatable, lethal cancers in order to prioritize optimal therapies. These clinical trials have been transformative in the field of precision medicine. 

Califano’s leadership extends beyond the lab. He is the founding chair of Columbia’s Department of Systems Biology and former director of the JP Sulzberger Columbia Genome Center. He currently leads the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York, a major research initiative bringing together scientists from Columbia, Yale, and Rockefeller to engineer immune cells capable of detecting and treating disease at its earliest stages.  

“I greatly appreciate receiving this award,” Califano said in his remarks at the award ceremony. “It’s been absolutely wonderful and unexpected. It’s a testament to what Fox Chase is doing to perpetuate the memory of this project.” 

Read the full article in the Fox Chase Cancer Center newsroom.