WSU School of Medicine recently honored Judah Folkman, M.D., a Harvard professor and a pioneer in the field of angiogenesis, with the George E. Palade Medal and Distinguished Lecture. The medal was established in honor of Professor George Emil Palade, a Nobel Prize winner who contributed to the establishment of modern cell biology.

In 1971, Dr. Folkman published a seminal paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, proposing the hypothesis that all tumor growth is angiogenesis-dependent. This founded the field of angiogenesis research and opened a field of investigation now pursued by scientists in many fields worldwide. Folkman's laboratory purified the first angiogenic protein from a tumor, discovered the first angiogenesis inhibitors and initiated clinical trials of antiangiogenic therapy. Today, angiogenesis inhibitors have received FDA approval in the U.S. for cancer and for the treatment of macular degeneration and are also approved in 27 other countries. Largely because of Folkman's research, the possibility of antiangiogenic therapy is now on a firm scientific foundation, not only in the treatment of cancer, but of many non-neoplastic diseases as well.

Folkman is the author of 389 original peer-reviewed papers and 106 book chapters and monographs. He also holds honorary degrees from fifteen universities and is the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to his distinguished accomplishments in research, Folkman has served as a surgeon and teacher. He began his career as an instructor in surgery for Harvard's Surgical Service at Boston City Hospital Boston, was promoted to Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and became the Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery in 1968. From 1967 he served as Surgeon-in-Chief at the Children's Hospital Boston for 14 years. Dr. Folkman is also a professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School and is currently Director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston.