Charles Sherr, M.D., Ph.D., recognized as 2013 fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Apr 26, 2013, 11:36 ET

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientist named to honorary society

MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Charles J. Sherr, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Tumor Cell Biology Department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has been named to the 2013 class of new Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Sherr's work has advanced scientific understanding of the mammalian cell cycle and tumor suppressor genes, which are both disrupted in cancer.

Founded in 1780, the Academy is an honorary society and independent policy research center. Throughout its history, the Academy has elected leaders from each generation, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Sherr is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. Among other honors, he has received the Pezcoller-AACR International Award for Cancer Research, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research, the Landon-AACR Prize for Cancer Research, and the Charles S. Mott Prize by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. Sherr also holds the Herrick Foundation Endowed Chair in Tumor Cell Biology at St. Jude.

This is the third year a St. Jude faculty member has been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Martine Roussel, Ph.D., and Brenda Schulman, Ph.D., were named fellows in 2011 and in 2012, respectively.

The class of 2013 includes winners of the Nobel Prize; the Lasker Award; the Pulitzer and the Shaw prizes; the Kennedy Center Honors; and Grammy, Emmy, Academy and Tony awards. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony in October at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering research and treatment of children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The hospital's research has helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancer from less than 20 percent when the institution opened to almost 80 percent today. It is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children, and no family ever pays St. Jude for anything. For more information, visit www.stjude.org. Follow us on Twitter @StJudeResearch.

SOURCE St. Jude Children's Research Hospital