Tony Hunter

American Cancer Society Professor.

Dr. Tony Hunter, a professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, studies how cells regulate their growth and division, and how mutations in genes that regulate growth lead to cancer. Hunter received his BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge in England, before coming over to Salk as a Postdoctoral Fellow. His lab has made significant contributions in the area of signal transduction, how signals that stimulate or rein in growth are routed within a cell. In 1979, his lab discovered that phosphate can be attached to tyrosine residues in proteins. This seminal discovery opened the door to the study of tyrosine kinases and their role in signal transduction, and in cell growth and development, as well as to their role in cancer and other human diseases. This knowledge already has resulted in a new approach to cancer treatment. Cancer drugs, such as leukemia Gleevec, have been designed based on Hunter’s discoveries. His efforts have aimed at elucidating how protein phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and SUMOylation events are used to regulate cell proliferation and growth control, and cell cycle checkpoint activation in response to DNA damage. His work has highlighted the importance of crosstalk and feedback loops in the PI-3 kinase-Akt-mTOR cell growth pathway, has elucidated mechanisms of activation of the ATM protein kinase in response to double strand DNA breaks, and has identified a role for the ERK MAP kinase pathway in the motility of early breast carcinoma cells. In 2018 Hunter received the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science and the Pezcoller–AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research.