PHILADELPHIA (June 12, 2025) — Andrea Califano, Dr, a leader in the field of systems biology, was recognized today at Fox Chase Cancer Center with the Stanley P. Reimann Honor Award, the center’s highest distinction.
“It is my privilege to present this award on behalf of our entire Fox Chase community to Dr. Califano,” said Cancer Center Director Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD. “A pioneer in cancer genetics and cancer biology, Dr. Califano is internationally recognized for his work in the reverse engineering of gene regulatory networks and analyzing such networks to identify key tumor checkpoint modules.”
Califano is the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York; President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York; and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of DarwinHealth Inc.
Califano is an elected fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Society for Computational Biology, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 2018, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Fox Chase bestows the Reimann Honor Award on individuals who bring exceptional ingenuity and expertise to the field of cancer research. The award was established in 1974 to perpetuate the memory of Stanley P. Reimann, MD, the founder of the Institute for Cancer Research, which merged with American Oncologic Hospital that same year to form Fox Chase Cancer Center.
When he founded the Institute for Cancer Research, Reimann fulfilled a personal dream to create an institution dedicated to studying the functions of normal cells in order to determine what goes wrong when cells become cancerous. Because his aspirations led to numerous milestones in advancing understanding of cancer, the award named in his honor is given to recipients whose efforts are similarly directed.
Califano’s lab at Columbia University has been instrumental in finding new biomarkers for the management of many types of cancer, including glioma, leukemia/lymphoma, and prostate cancer. His work has involved the discovery of small molecule compounds and combinations that can turn off key proteins that help cancer grow, establishing them as a new class of therapeutic targets.
His work in this area has led to several clinical trials, including one in which patients were analyzed individually for 14 different untreatable, lethal cancers in order to prioritize optimal therapies. These clinical trials have helped bring researchers one step closer to implementing effective precision medicine.
In addition to his groundbreaking research in the lab, Califano has also served as scientific editor of several peer-reviewed journals, as well as on scientific advisory boards, including the Frederick National Laboratory, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Board of Scientific Advisors, the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the MD Anderson Division of Cancer Medicine, among others.
Califano has also received numerous honors over the course of his career, including the Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics in 2023 from the NCI, an award named after a pioneering Fox Chase researcher. He also received the 2019 Ruth Leff Siegel Award for Excellence in Pancreatic Cancer Research and the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award in 2015 and 2022.
Over the years, Fox Chase has bestowed the Reimann Award to humanitarians, advocates for public health, philanthropists, researchers, and business professionals. Despite their varied backgrounds and chosen professions, all had one thing in common: a desire to understand, prevent, treat, and eradicate cancer. Califano now joins a list of 18 individuals who have received the award since 1974.