Carlo Croce

Carlo Croce made the foundational discovery that chromosomal translocations in cancer activate oncogenes, characterizing the BCL-2 translocation in follicular lymphoma that revealed the first anti-apoptotic oncogene and established the principle that cancer evolution selects for survival advantages through apoptosis evasion. His subsequent discovery of microRNA dysregulation in cancer opened an entirely new dimension of cancer genetics. His decades of work at Ohio State University have defined multiple molecular mechanisms by which genetic rearrangements drive cancer evolution and have led to the development of targeted therapies based on these discoveries.