Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has named Levi Garraway, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of three recipients of this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The award recognizes promising investigators aged 45 or younger for their efforts in advancing cancer research.

The other winners are Simon J. Boulton, of Cancer Research UK, and Duojia (DJ) Pan of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. They will each receive an award of $50,000 and speak about their research at a scientific symposium on December 5.

Garraway is co-leader of the Cancer Genetics Program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and a Senior Associate Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. His research has focused on the discovery of new cancer genes and cellular pathways that are relevant across several different malignancies, particularly melanoma and prostate cancer. Recently, he discovered cancer-promoting mutations in what is known as the “dark matter” of the genome — DNA that does not code for proteins but plays a role in gene regulation.

Another area of focus is studying how genetic or molecular changes enable tumors to develop resistance to targeted therapies, especially in melanoma. Furthermore, Garraway’s team is adapting genomic technology to enable the use of this information to guide clinical decision making. “The challenge now is shifting from gene discovery to making the information practical so that it can enable personalized cancer medicine,” he said.

The winners were selected by a committee made up of prominent members of the cancer research community and chaired by Michael Kastan, executive eirector of the Duke Cancer Institute.

Since it was first presented in 2001, the biennial Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research has recognized 22 young scientists and has awarded nearly $1 million in prize money. The award was created to honor Dr. Marks, MD, President Emeritus of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, for his contributions as a scientist, teacher, and leader during the 19 years he headed the Center.

Colleen Farrell, a current HMS student, has been selected by the American Medical Association (AMA) to be editor of an issue of the AMA’s online ethics journal, Virtual Mentor. Her issue will be devoted to the topic of motherhood and medicine

Virtual Mentor explores the ethical challenges that students, residents and other physicians are likely to confront during their training and daily practice. The journal publishes original articles and commentary each month on a given theme.

Each year, twelve issue editors are selected from among medical students and residents who seek to enrich their education by taking the time to examine one of medicine’s ethical challenges.

Jeffrey Hausdorff, HMS lecturer in medicine, has been awarded the 2013 Excellence in Rehabilitation of Aging Persons Award from the Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA). The award is given annually to acknowledge outstanding contributions in the field of rehabilitation.

Hausdorff is a biomedical researcher who focuses his work on movement disorders, aging, biomechanics and other related areas. He has made important contributions in the fields of rehabilitation of again persons, neuroscience and biomedical engineering with his studies on human gait.

Hausdorff, who is also director of the Laboratory for Gait and Neurodynamics at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, and professor in the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel-Aviv University, invented a new system for long-term measurement and investigation of the temporal parameters of gait. He then applied it by leading studies on the stride-to-stride fluctuations of walking.