Last Tuesday night, CVI Founder and Director Dr. Nora Disis attended the American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring Meeting in New Orleans and received the 2024 ACS Creative Invention Award.
Given to a single inventor who successfully applies chemistry and chemical engineering to contribute to the material prosperity and happiness of people, this award recognizes Dr. Disis’s work in making cancer vaccines a reality.
The vaccines are designed to recognize specific proteins found at high levels in cancers and train the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells with those proteins. Three of the vaccines developed by Dr. Disis and her team are in Phase II clinical trials for breast, ovarian, and lung cancers, while others are in preclinical development.
Dr. Disis shared that the most rewarding part of her job is “seeing the work we do translated to the clinic. The patients are inspiring, especially those volunteering for first-in-human studies with no expectation of an improved outcome for themselves. They are the real heroes in medical science.”
Her colleague Dr. Andy Stergachis at the University of Washington commended her for this well-deserved award: “Nora has a long history of innovation in cancer vaccine design and engineering. Her work has already made a difference in the lives of patients with breast and ovarian cancer, and she continues to develop vaccines for other common solid tumors.”
