SFA Honors Stanford University Researcher Crystal L. Mackall, MD, with 2022 Nobility in Science Award
The Sarcoma Foundation of America (SFA), an organization dedicated to increasing research and awareness for sarcoma, today announced that Crystal L. Mackall, MD, will receive the Nobility in Science Award during SFA’s Stand Up to Sarcoma Gala on September 28, 2022, in New York, NY.
The Nobility in Science Award is given annually to a deserving, visionary sarcoma surgeon and researcher who has taken on an integral role in advancing drug development for sarcoma patients. Awardees receiving this honor have contributed in a significant way to the advancement of science, care and treatment for sarcoma patients.
Dr. Mackall is the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family professor and professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at Stanford University. She is the founding director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, associate director of Stanford Cancer Institute, leader of the Cancer Immunology Program and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford.
Stanford’s Mackall Lab is an internationally recognized oncology research program focusing on immunology that spans basic, translational and clinical research. Dr. Mackall’s work creates new knowledge and simultaneously develops therapeutics. She is credited with identifying an essential role for the thymus in T cell regeneration and discovering IL-7 as the master regulator of T cell homeostasis. She has conducted numerous early phase and first-in-human and first-in-child clinical trials using numerous immune therapies including one that has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the Food and Drug Administration. Her group has identified a major feature limiting the activity of an immune therapy called CAR T cells and has developed novel approaches to prevent and reverse this feature.
Dr. Mackall is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Richard V. Smalley Award highlighting her achievements in immuno-oncology, the AACR-St. Baldrick’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer Research and the ASCO Pediatric Oncology Award. She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and is a fellow of the American Academy of Physicians and the AACR Academy. She serves in numerous national leadership positions, including co-Principal investigator on the NCI Pediatric Cancer Immunotherapy Network (U54) and co-leader of the St. Baldrick’s-StandUp2Cancer Pediatric Dream Team. She is board certified in Pediatrics, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Internal Medicine.
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About the Sarcoma Foundation of America
The Sarcoma Foundation of America (SFA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, is an advocate for increased research to find new and better therapies with which to treat patients with sarcoma. The organization raises money to privately fund grants for sarcoma researchers and conducts education and advocacy efforts on behalf of sarcoma patients. For more information, please visit www.curesarcoma.org.
About Sarcoma
Sarcoma is a rare cancer in adults (1 percent of all adult cancers) but rather prevalent in children (about 20% of all childhood cancers). At any one time, 50,000 patients and their families are struggling with sarcoma. Every year, nearly 16,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 6,000 people die from the disease.