Fox Chase Cancer Center welcomed Andrea Califano, Dr, a leader in the field of systems biology, on June 12, 2025, to award him the Center’s highest distinction, the Stanley P. Reimann Honor Award.
Califano was introduced by Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD, Cancer Center Director and the Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology Research.
“It is my privilege to present this award to Dr. Andrea Califano. A pioneer in cancer genetics and biology, he is internationally recognized for his work in reverse engineering gene regulatory networks,” said Chernoff. “To summarize his career is difficult, but he was doing bioinformatics and computational biology before it was cool.”
Stanley P. Reimann, MD, for whom the award is named, was the founder of the Institute for Cancer Research, which merged with American Oncologic Hospital in 1974 to form Fox Chase Cancer Center.
“Stanley Reimann thought that understanding how normal cells become tumorigenic was going to be the key to understanding and treating cancer. We should all really be proud of that vision because we still don’t completely understand it, but we’ve done a lot of work to try to do so,” Califano said.
“I greatly appreciate receiving this award. It’s been absolutely wonderful and unexpected. It’s a testament to what Fox Chase is doing to perpetuate the memory of this project.”
Califano’s lab at Columbia University focuses on what he calls “Quantum Cancer Biology” and the process of targeting small molecule compounds and combinations known as master regulators for cancer therapy. Califano gave a lecture after receiving the award outlining his lab’s work on reverse engineering in cells, demonstrating the importance of understanding the functions of both normal and cancerous cells.
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.
Reimann fulfilled a personal dream when he founded the Institute for Cancer Research to create an institution dedicated to studying the function of normal cells in order to determine what goes wrong when cells become cancerous. Because his aspirations led to numerous milestones in advancing the understanding of cancer, the award named in his honor is given to recipients whose efforts are similarly directed.
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 since 1974 to receive the award.
In addition to his groundbreaking work in the lab, Califano has served as scientific editor of several peer-reviewed journals, as well as on scientific advisory boards, including for the Frederick National Laboratory, the National Cancer Institute 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 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.
He 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.