Ingo K. Mellinghoff, M.D.

Distinguished Scientist Award Recipients

Ingo K. Mellinghoff, M.D.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
2007 Distinguished Scientist Award

Education:
Technical University, Munich Germany, M.D., 1993
University of Munich, 1993-1995, Internship, Internal Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995-1999, Residency, Internal Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles, 1992-2002, Fellowship,
   Hematology-Oncology
University of California, Los Angeles, 2000-2004, Postdoctoral Fellow,
   Dr. Charles L. Sawyers

"Recent advances in cancer genetics and biotechnology have provided us with a wealth of opportunities to identify, model, and target signature events in the pathogenesis of cancer. The generous support of The Sontag Foundation will play a very important role in translating these opportunities into better clinical outcomes for patients with glioblastoma."

-- Dr. Ingo Mellinghoff

About Dr. Mellinghoff's Research:
During the last five years, kinase inhibitors have emerged as a promising new class of cancer therapeutics. These drugs target enzymes, which are often ubiquitously expressed within the human body, control a wide range of cellular responses, and are tightly regulated under physiological conditions. Cancer cells can escape these normal restraints on kinase activity through mutations in kinase-encoding genes or genes regulating their function. Even though tumorigenesis is a multistep process requiring multiple genetic aberrations, cancer cells can become so “addicted” to a deregulated signaling pathway that blocking this signal results in cell death. Inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase, for example, have been shown to cause clinically significant tumor shrinkage in a subset of patients with recurrent glioblastoma. This proposal will explore the role of the receptor tyrosine kinase MET in glioma formation and progression as well as molecular determinants of response to MET kinase inhibition.

Accolades:

"Ingo exemplifies precisely what we are all looking for in young physician-scientist who have the potential to move back and forth from bench to bedside. I recommend him with the highest possible enthusiasm."

-- Charles L. Sawyers, M.D.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

"Ingo is a model example of a new generation of scientist who bridge the gap in truly unique ways between basic science and clinically oriented investigation in the field of oncology, with a sincere passion for both."

-- Michael E. Phelps, Ph.D.
UCLA School of Medicine

« back to Previous Grant Recipients