BIOCOM Life Sciences Heritage Award

The BIOCOM Life Sciences Heritage Award was awarded in 2005, 2006, and 2008 by BIOCOM and the Chemical Heritage Foundation to recognize an individual in the Greater San Diego region who has made outstanding contributions to the life sciences.

About the Recipients

John C. Reed, 2008
John C. Reed is president and CEO of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, a nonprofit biomedical research institute headquartered in San Diego. His research has focused primarily on cancer, but he has also made important contributions in the areas of AIDS, autoimmunity, stroke, and other diseases. Reed has been a pioneer in delineating the fundamental mechanisms that regulate programmed cell death, a process by which cells in the body commit suicide through activation of a genetically controlled program. His work has revealed how defects in programmed cell death contribute to diseases, resulting in novel strategies for therapeutic intervention.

In 1989 Reed was appointed assistant professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and assistant director, Laboratory of Molecular Diagnosis at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Reed was recruited to the Burnham Institute in 1992. He founded and directed the institute's Program on Apoptosis and Cell Death Research until 2000. Reed served as the institute's scientific director from 1995 to 2001; he was appointed president and CEO in 2002.

The author of more than 700 peer-reviewed articles, Reed is also the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He serves on the editorial boards of 10 scientific journals and on the board of directors of 7 companies or nonprofit organizations. Reed received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Virginia. He earned both an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he also received his clinical and postdoctoral training.

Ronald M. Evans, 2006
Ronald M. Evans joined the the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1978 and has held the March of Dimes Chair in Developmental and Molecular Biology since 1998. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine in 1974 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University in New York. Evans is an authority on hormones' roles in normal physiologic regulation as well as their roles in disease.

The major achievement of Evans's lab was the discovery of hormone receptors, a large family of molecules that respond to hormones that help control sugar, salt, calcium, and fat metabolism; affect general health and well-being; and contribute to the treatment of disease. The receptors Evans discovered are primary targets in the treatment of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and leukemia, as well as osteoporosis and asthma. Evans's studies have also led to the discovery of a new hormone that appears to be the molecular trigger controlling the formation of fat cells. This hormone and its chemical derivatives represent one of the newest and most important advances in understanding problems arising from excess weight and in the potential treatment of adult onset (type 2) diabetes.

Dennis A. Carson, 2005
Dennis Carson, the winner of the first BIOCOM Life Sciences Heritage Award, became director of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center in 2003. He is also a professor of medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine, associate dean for cancer affairs, and holder of the Chugai Pharmaceutical Chair in Cancer. He earned his medical degree in 1970 at Columbia University and received postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and UCSD. He has published nearly 450 scientific papers, is an inventor on more than 60 U.S. and international patents, and has founded four companies.

Carson is perhaps best known for his landmark work in developing a new agent called 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine, or 2-CdA, for the treatment of hairy cell leukemia. This drug, now marketed as Leustatin, is the treatment of choice for this disease and has resulted in long-term, complete remissions in about 75 percent of patients, often after just a single infusion. It is also effective in other lymphoid cancers, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis. Carson's goal is to establish the Moores Cancer Center as a world leader in early cancer detection. He was recently inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.


About the Sponsors
BIOCOM is a premier life-science-industry association representing more than 450 member companies in San Diego and Southern California. The association focuses on initiatives that positively influence the growth of the life-science industry, including capital formation, public policy, workforce development, and scientific discovery and development.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) fosters an understanding of chemistry’s impact on society. An independent nonprofit organization, we strive to

• Inspire a passion for chemistry;
• Highlight chemistry’s role in meeting current social challenges; and
• Preserve the story of chemistry across centuries.

CHF maintains major collections of instruments, fine art, photographs, papers, and books. We host conferences and lectures, support research, offer fellowships, and produce educational materials. Our museum and public programs explore subjects ranging from alchemy to nanotechnology.