At the end of last week, Professor Emerita Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale was elected Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy. It is a major recognition of her many years of cancer research and a great honour only received by a select few. Børresen-Dale is appointed on the basis of her seminal research contributions involving breast cancer, DNA damage and repair, and the identification of molecular profiles that contribute to cancer risk, tumour staging, and therapy resistance led by conducting extensive gene expression profiling of breast carcinomas. She has previously also received the AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Award 2015 and the AACR Women in Cancer Research Award 2017.
First Norwegian Fellow of the AACR Academy
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's first and largest professional organisation dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer. AACR membership includes more than 50,000 laboratory, translational, and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and patient advocates residing in over 129 countries and territories around the world.
The AACR Academy is tasked with recognising and honouring distinguished scientists whose scientific contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer.
“This is first and foremost a great honour for both myself and my institution, and not least the research group and all the great people that I have been privileged to work with for so many years,” says Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale. “I am proud to be a part of this academy, and this year to be elected together with several of my former partners and wonderful colleagues for many years. I was also the first non-North American to be elected to the Board of Directors of the AACR from 2003-2006. I also think I am the first Norwegian to be appointed Fellow,” she continues.
“It is gratifying and very well deserved that Professor Emerita Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale has been elected as a Fellow of the AACR Academy,” says Research Dean Jens Petter Berg. “Anne-Lise's research has made major scientific contributions to the understanding of, among other things, DNA damage and repair in breast cancer. This, in turn, is crucial in identifying new treatment options. On behalf of the faculty, I would like to congratulate Anne-Lise on this prestigious election,” says the Research Dean.
“We at the Institute of Clinical Medicine have to add our voices to the congratulations and statement from the Research Dean. Anne-Lise has worked systematically on basic biology in relation to breast cancer at a high professional level and has also been very good at international network building,” says Head of Department Dag Kvale.
“The election to Fellow of the AACR Academy is a great recognition of the research Anne-Lise has carried out for many years. I am grateful and proud to have been in her research group and she has been a great inspiration to me throughout all these years,” says Therese Sørlie, head of the Department of Cancer Genetics.
Election of Fellows
All Fellows of the AACR Academy are nominated and elected through an annual peer review process conducted by existing Fellows of the AACR Academy. This process involves a rigorous assessment of each candidate’s scientific accomplishments in cancer research and cancer-related sciences. Only individuals whose work has had a significant and enduring impact on cancer research are considered for election and induction into the AACR Academy. The AACR Academy will present its tenth class of esteemed Fellows, of which Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale is now one, in connection with their upcoming 2002 AACR annual meeting.