Research News

Lerner Research Institute's George Stark, PhD, Department of Cancer Biology, was honored with the 2019 Steven C. Beering Award, presented earlier this month following a lecture and reception at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The prestigious award recognizes internationally regarded scientists for their contributions to the advancement of biomedical or clinical science. Over the course of Dr. Stark’s career, there have been many such contributions—including development of the Western blot, a now fundamental technique in research to study gene expression, and elucidation of the role of interferons in cancer.

While Dr. Stark’s lab once focused on protein chemistry, he has spent the last nearly 40 years studying cell and molecular biology, specifically in the context of innate immunity in cancer. Prior to joining Lerner Research Institute—where he served as Institute Chair for the first 10 years of his tenure and was then named the Distinguished Scientist of the Cleveland Clinic—Dr. Stark spent time in labs at Columbia College, Rockefeller University, Stanford University and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (London, England).

Dr. Stark is the 37th recipient of the annual award, which was first presented in 1983 and comes with a medal and $25,000. To join this exclusive list of awardees is a tremendous honor as eight of the past Beering Award recipients have become Nobel laureates, either before or after receipt of the award. In addition to this most recent award, Dr. Stark has been honored with countless other professional awards, including membership to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.