NEW YORK (Feb. 13, 2024) — Dr. Sumit Gupta, a physician-scientist whose analysis focuses on susceptible subpopulations of kids with most cancers, has been awarded the eighth annual Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research, Weill Cornell Medicine introduced right now. 

Dr. Sumit Gupta

The Drukier Prize honors an early-career pediatrician whose analysis guarantees to make vital contributions towards bettering the well being of kids and adolescents. Dr. Gupta is an affiliate professor within the Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, each on the University of Toronto, and affiliate scientist and head of the Section of Leukemia and Lymphoma on the Hospital for Sick Children (SickYoungsters) in Toronto, Ontario. He is being acknowledged for his analysis utilizing well being information to reply necessary medical and well being coverage questions affecting kids residing with most cancers domestically and globally. 

Dr. Gupta’s most up-to-date analysis consists of finding out the late results of most cancers remedy in adolescents and younger adults, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, and designing and evaluating a program for the early identification of childhood cancers in Kenya and Cameroon, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Gupta acquired his award, which carries an unrestricted honorarium, and gave a presentation of his most up-to-date work at a ceremony on Feb. 13. Dr. Carola Vinuesa, a famend immunologist and investigator from the Francis Crick Institute in London, England, delivered the Gale and Ira Drukier Lecture in Children’s Health, which highlights analysis and discoveries which have contributed to vital advances in kids’s well being. 

Dr. Carola Vinuesa

The Drukier Prize and Lecture had been established as a part of a $25 million reward to Weill Cornell Medicine from Dr. Gale Drukier and Weill Cornell Medicine Board of Fellows member Ira Drukier in December 2014. The reward created the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health—a premier, cross-disciplinary institute devoted to accelerating analysis into the underlying causes of devastating childhood ailments.

“Dr. Gupta is an exceptional physician-scientist who demonstrates a deep commitment to improving outcomes for children with cancer through innovative research,” stated  Dr. Robert A. Harrington, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and provost for medical affairs of Cornell University. “We thank the Drukiers for establishing this prestigious award and their continuing support in this important area of medicine and are delighted to recognize Dr. Gupta with this year’s prize.”

“It is our distinct pleasure to highlight outstanding physicians and scientists like Dr. Gupta, who are devoted to advancing children’s health,” stated Dr. Gale Drukier and Board of Fellows Member Dr. Ira Drukier. “Dr. Gupta’s work to address some of the challenges faced by pediatric cancer patients provides hope to those children and their families, and he has a bright future ahead in children’s health research.”

“Dr. Gupta’s research using health data shines a light on the care of pediatric patients with life-threatening cancers, both at home and abroad,” stated Dr. Virginia Pascual, the Drukier Director of the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health and the Ronay Menschel Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. “His work has great potential for improving access to treatment, outcomes and quality of life for many of these young people and the Drukier Institute is pleased to honor his tireless efforts in advancing these goals.”

Dr. Sumit Gupta

In his analysis, Dr. Gupta analyzes well being care information to reply necessary questions on points going through kids with most cancers. For instance, he led an investigation of the impression of discontinuing a necessary chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), referred to as asparaginase, by analyzing medical trial information from North America, Australia and New Zealand. At the time, the drug was usually discontinued resulting from allergic reactions, but an alternate drug was continuously unavailable due to provide points. The examine revealed kids who acquired the choice drug achieved related outcomes in contrast with those that acquired the usual remedy. However, survival charges had been decrease for many who didn’t obtain all doses of both drug. The discovering led to modifications in remedy methods and additional advocacy to strengthen provide chain insurance policies. 

Dr. Gupta’s world well being analysis confirmed that treating childhood most cancers in Ghana was cost-effective. The perception gave native advocates important proof that led the Ghana Ministry of Health to cowl childhood most cancers underneath the nation’s common well being care insurance coverage program, bettering entry to lifesaving therapies for extra younger sufferers. Dr. Gupta’s work additionally found survivors of childhood, adolescent and younger grownup cancers in Ontario didn’t have an elevated threat of infections or extreme issues from COVID-19, offering important steering for threat counseling and lessening anxiousness skilled by sufferers and their households in the course of the pandemic.

“Winning the Drukier Prize from Weill Cornell Medicine is a huge honor,” Dr. Gupta stated. “It’s also a lovely opportunity to highlight the incredible advances in childhood cancer research, both locally and globally, and recognize how much work still lies ahead.”

Dr. Gupta acquired a medical diploma in 2005 from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in medical epidemiology in 2014. After finishing a pediatric residency and a subspecialty residency in pediatric hematology/oncology at SickYoungsters and his doctorate, he was appointed as a workers oncologist within the Division of Hematology/Oncology in 2010-2011 and was appointed head of the Section of Leukemia and Lymphoma in 2023. He was additionally awarded the Garron Family Chair in Childhood Cancer Research at SickYoungsters in 2023.

Dr. Gupta is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Hematology. He serves on a number of committees, together with as vice chair of the ALL Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group, and a working group lead of the National Cancer Institute’s National Childhood Cancer Registry Initiative.

Dr. Gupta has acquired notable awards, such because the Canadian Cancer Society William E. Rawls Prize in 2022, recognizing his contributions as an early profession investigator, and the Alvin Zipurski Award from the Department of Paediatrics at SickYoungsters for his exemplary mentorship and improvement of initiatives within the fellowship program.

Dr. Carola Vinuesa

Dr. Vinuesa is a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and assistant analysis director and principal group chief of the Francis Crick Institute. Her analysis has considerably superior the understandings of the immune system and recognized novel genes driving the event and development of autoimmune ailments, akin to lupus.

In 2023, she was awarded the Lupus Insight Prize from the Lupus Research Alliance and the Johann Anton Merck Award from Merck KGaA, for her discovery that uncommon gene variants within the viral RNA sensor TLR7 trigger lupus in some sufferers. Her discovery supplied important insights into lupus illness mechanisms and has supplied a rationale for using novel therapies concentrating on TLR7 in lupus. 

Through her genetic analysis, Dr. Vinuesa additionally just lately helped free an Australian girl who was wrongfully convicted of smothering her kids. After sequencing the girl’s and kids’s genomes, Dr. Vinuesa found that two of the kids inherited a novel gene variant within the gene CALM2 from their mom that may trigger cardiac arrest and sudden dying, proving the girl was not chargeable for their deaths. She was launched in June 2023 after serving 20 years in jail, and was just lately exonerated.

Dr. Vinuesa acquired a medical diploma from the University Autonoma of Madrid, undertook specialist medical coaching in England, and was awarded a Ph.D. diploma in immunology from the University of Birmingham, London. Following her postdoctoral coaching in immunogenetics on the Australian National University, she superior from group chief to professor to division head. From 2014 to 2021, she directed the Australian-based Centre for Personalised immunology, a National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence. She has been elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS), fellow of the Academy of Medical Science (FMedSci) and fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).

Weill Cornell Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine is dedicated to excellence in affected person care, scientific discovery and the training of future physicians in New York City and around the globe. The docs and scientists of Weill Cornell Medicine—school from Weill Cornell Medical College, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and Weill Cornell Physician Organization—are engaged in world-class medical care and cutting-edge analysis that join sufferers to the newest remedy improvements and prevention methods. Located within the coronary heart of the Upper East Side’s scientific hall, Weill Cornell Medicine’s highly effective community of collaborators extends to its father or mother college Cornell University; to Qatar, the place Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar gives a Cornell University medical diploma; and to applications in Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Weill Cornell Medicine school present exemplary affected person care at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens and NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Weill Cornell Medicine can also be affiliated with Houston Methodist. For extra data, go to weill.cornell.edu.