Lifetime Achievement Award

2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for Scientific Contributions

Peter Vogt, PhD

Peter Vogt was trained as a virologist at the Max-Planck-Institute in Tübingen, Germany, and at the University of California in Berkeley. His work deals with retroviral replication and genetics, with viral and cellular oncogenes and with the identification of novel inhibitors of oncoproteins. He has made groundbreaking contributions to our knowledge of the cellular and molecular biology and to the genetics of retroviral infections, including the interaction between viral and cellular receptors, genetic recombination between retroviruses, and endogenous retroviral genomes. His discovery of the first temperature-sensitive mutant of Rous sarcoma virus provided definitive proof for the existence of oncogenes.

His work on the structure of retroviral RNA identified a specific sequence responsible for oncogenic transformation, now known as the src oncogene. This work led directly to the discovery of the cellular origin of viral oncogenes. Vogt’s studies of diverse retroviruses resulted in the discovery of several novel oncogenes that have become household words in cellular signaling and are of key importance in human cancer: myc, jun and PI 3-kinase. His recent work involves collaborations with chemists at the Scripps Research Institute in a quest for small molecule regulators of cancer targets, notably protein-protein interactions involving the MYC protein.

Vogt has held faculty positions at the University of Colorado, the University of Washington, the University of Southern California and is currently Professor at The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Vogt has received numerous prestigious international honors including the 2010 Albert Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research and the 2013 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research.

2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service

Ray Schinazi, PhD, Hon DSc

Dr. Raymond F. Schinazi is the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology at Emory University and Director of the HIV CURE Working Group for the NIH-sponsored Emory University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Dr. Schinazi has authored over 500 peer-reviewed papers and 7 books and holds over 100 issued U.S. patents, which have resulted in 15 New Drug Applications (NDA).

A world leader in nucleoside chemistry, Dr. Schinazi is best known for his pioneering work on HIV, HBV and HCV drugs d4T (stavudine), 3TC (lamivudine), FTC (emtricitabine/Emtriva), LdT (telbivudine), and most recently sofosbuvir (Sovaldi), which are now approved by the FDA. More than 94% of HIV-infected individuals in the US on combination therapy take at least one of the drugs he invented.

Dr. Schinazi served on the Presidential Commission on AIDS and is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2015 William S. Middleton Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is internationally recognized as one of the most influential persons in the life science sector.