Owen Witte, MD, Recognized for Leukemia Discoveries at AACR

Dr. Witte, University Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles, received the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blood Cancer Research at the 2024 AACR Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, on April 9.

During his presentation, Dr. Witte highlighted his decades-long career trajectory and research, which has led to the development of kinase targeted therapy for leukemias and the co-discovery of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase.

The session included opening remarks from Matthew Schulz, Assistant Scientific Director at AbbVie, and Faith E. Davies, MD, Chair of the Selection Committee for the award and Director of the Center for Blood Cancers at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center.

“Dr. Witte’s body of work offers a compelling example of target discovery and validation in human cancers and illustrates the critical importance of understanding basic disease mechanisms as a guide for the development of novel therapies,” Dr. Davies said. “His discoveries have led to the development of targeted therapies that have revolutionized modern cancer treatment and changed the lives of countless patients with leukemia and lymphoma.”

Dr. Witte’s recent research focuses on finding immunological targets for both antibody and cell-mediated therapy.

“There’s still lots of work to do to find good targets to treat cancer,” Dr. Witte said. “Particularly, with the field of immunotherapy exploding, any single target we find that can match with an antibody, a CAR, or a T-cell receptor will be of real value to patients.”