Anthony Rex Hunter (born 23 August 1943) is a British-American biologist who is a Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is th ...

. His research publications list his name as Tony Hunter.

Early life and education

Hunter was born in 1943 in the United Kingdom and educated at

Felsted School (Keep your Faith) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Chris Townsend , r_head_l ...

, prior to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD in 1969 for research on protein synthesis.

Career and research

Following his PhD, Hunter held a fellowship at Christ's College, Cambridge, in Cambridge (1968–1971) and (1973–1975). From 1971 to 1973, he was a

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

associate of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He was then assistant professor 1975–78, associate professor 1978–82, professor 1982 onwards and since 2008 director of the Salk Institute Cancer Center. He also sits on the Selection Committee for Life Science and Medicine which chooses winners of the Shaw Prize. Hunter is one of the foremost recognized leaders in the field of cell growth control, growth factor receptors and their signal transduction pathways. He is well known for discovering that tyrosine phosphorylation is a fundamental mechanism for transmembrane-signal transduction in response to growth factor stimulation and that disregulation of such tyrosine phosphorylation, by activated oncogenic protein

tyrosine kinases A tyrosine kinase is an enzyme that can transfer a phosphate group from ATP to the tyrosine residues of specific proteins inside a cell. It functions as an "on" or "off" switch in many cellular functions. Tyrosine kinases belong to a larger cla ...

, is a pivotal mechanism utilized in the malignant transformation of cells. His work is important in signaling pathways and their disorders. Hunter was a founder of Signal Pharmaceuticals.

Awards and honors

He won the

Wolf Prize in Medicine The Wolf Prize in Medicine is awarded annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Arts. The ...

in 2005 for "the discovery of protein kinases that phosphorylate tyrosine residues in proteins, critical for the regulation of a wide variety of cellular events, including malignant transformation". He has been granted along with

Charles Sawyers Charles L. Sawyers (born 1959) is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator who holds the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) ...

and Joseph Schlessinger with the 2014

BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...

in the Biomedicine category for “carving out the path that led to the development of a new class of successful cancer drugs.” * 1987 Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) * 1994 Charles S. Mott Prize by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. * 1994

Gairdner Foundation International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a ...

. * 1998 Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. * 2001

Keio Medical Science Prize The Keio Medical Science Prize ( Japanese: 慶應医学賞) is a Japanese prize in medical sciences. Introduction The prize is awarded to scientists who made significant contributions to the field of medical sciences or life sciences. And these co ...

* 2004

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemist ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. * 2005

* 2006

Pasarow Award The Robert J. And Claire Pasarow Foundation Medical Research Awards were awarded annually for distinguished accomplishment in areas of investigation that included neuropsychiatry, cardiovascular disease, and cancer research. The program ran from 1 ...

in Cancer Research. * 2014 Royal Medal * 2014

in Biomedicine * 2017

Sjöberg Prize The Sjöberg Prize is an award aimed at individuals or research groups that have made significant contributions to cancer research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatme ...

for Cancer Research * 2018

Tang Prize The Tang Prize () is a set of biannual international awards bestowed in four fields: Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Nomination and selection are conducted by an independent selection committee, whic ...

* 2018 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Anthony R. 1943 births Living people University of California, San Diego faculty Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences 21st-century American biologists Fellows of the AACR Academy Salk Institute for Biological Studies people Members of the National Academy of Medicine