Van Andel Institute, Johns Hopkins University scientists to receive prestigious Harvey Prize

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Dec. 9, 2024) — A trio of esteemed scientists from Van Andel Institute and Johns Hopkins University will receive the Harvey Prize for their groundbreaking discoveries in cancer epigenetics.

Van Andel Institute’s Peter A. Jones, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hon), Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and VAI’s Stephen B. Baylin, M.D., and Johns Hopkins University’s Andrew P. Feinberg, M.D., will share the prestigious award, which recognizes their individual and collaborative contributions to science and human health.

“Drs. Jones, Baylin and Feinberg are titans of the scientific community, and this prize joins the long and well-deserved list of accolades honoring their contributions,” said VAI Chairman and CEO David Van Andel. Their pioneering work in epigenetics transformed our understanding of health and disease and opened vast new horizons in research. I extend warm congratulations to them on this achievement.”

Jones joined VAI as chief scientific officer in 2014 following more than 30 years at University of Southern California. He is a pioneer and internationally recognized expert in epigenetics, a field that explores how the instructions in DNA are regulated without changing the DNA sequence itself. Epigenetic mechanisms greatly influence health and diseases such as cancer.

His transformative research in the 1980s was the first to link an epigenetic process called DNA methylation to gene expression and cellular differentiation. DNA methylation occurs when chemical marks called methyl groups are added to genes. These marks regulate whether the instructions in a gene are active or silent.

Methylation errors now are widely recognized as major contributors to cancer — and potent treatment targets. Jones’ early work determined the effects of a drug called 5-azacytidine on methylation, which led to its approval as a leukemia treatment.

Jones and Baylin are longtime collaborators and together shared the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor in 2011 and the American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) Kirk A. Landon Award for Basic Cancer Research in 2009.

Jones’ and Baylin’s efforts to translate lab discoveries into cancer treatments led to their appointments as co-leaders of the original Stand Up To Cancer® Epigenetics Dream Team in 2009. After Jones joined VAI in 2014, he and Baylin established the Van Andel Institute–Stand Up To Cancer® Epigenetics Dream Team, which brings together leading cancer research and treatment organizations to evaluate promising potential cancer treatments. To date, the team has launched 15 clinical trials in cancers of the lung, bladder and breast, among others. 

A leading authority on cancer epigenetics, Baylin’s research explores genetic and epigenetic changes in cells that enable cancers to progress and spread. His foundational work demonstrated how rampant, abnormal methylation switches off genes that suppress cancer growth, a feature that is now used as a biomarker to assess cancer risk and monitor disease progression. He is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research and co-director of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics at Johns Hopkins. He also is a Director’s Scholar at VAI.

Feinberg’s innovative research in the 1980s identified methylation as a key contributor to cancer onset and progression. Since then, he has developed and employed game-changing techniques and statistical methods to more precisely study epigenetics’ role in cancer and other diseases. These efforts led to his discovery of several epigenetic features that influence cancer risk. Feinberg is director of the Center for Epigenetics at Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Whiting School of Engineering and Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The Harvey Prize is widely considered to be a “Nobel predictor,” with more than 30% of recipients going on to win the Nobel Prize. It has been awarded annually by Technion University since 1971. Jones, Baylin and Feinberg will formally receive the award in June 2025.