Franziska Michor named winner of Creative Promise Prize in Biomedical Science

Franziska Michor was picked as the winner of a Creative Promise Prize in Biomedical Science for her research that fuses evolutionary biology, mathematics, and clinical research toward a better understanding of cancer genesis and treatments. Dr. Michor is a professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, where she leads a National Cancer Institute-sponsored Physical Science-Oncology Center aimed at using physical sciences to address intractable challenges in cancer biology. Her mathematical modeling efforts have deftly unraveled the dynamics of cancer cell evolution. By taking a quantitative approach, Dr. Michor has furnished a precise understanding of the cellular basis of drug resistance seen among cancer patients treated with the cancer drug Gleevec. She also designed novel cancer drug treatment regimens that might help increase the odds of patient survival by altering the dose and timing at which cancer drugs are administered. Early-stage clinical trials to test the logistical feasibility of Dr. Michor's alternative drug regimen for non-small-cell lung cancer and to develop an alternative radiation therapy schedule for a form of brain tumor called pro-neural glioblastoma are underway. Franziska Michor was born in Vienna, Austria.