Press Release: ECOG-ACRIN announces the recipients of its 2024 scientific leadership and mentorship awards

The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) announces Dustin A. Deming, MD, Heather A. Wakelee, MD, and Tarek H. Mouhieddine, MD, as the recipients of the organization’s annual scientific awards. Since 1992, the Group has formally recognized investigators for outstanding achievement early in their careers. The Mentoring Program expanded in 2023 with the addition of the Remarkable Mentor to Women in Oncology Award.

Young Investigator of the Year

Dustin A. “Dusty” Deming, MD, is the 2024 recipient of the Young Investigator Award for scientific and administrative achievements made within ECOG-ACRIN and the broader scientific community during the early years of his career. Dr. Deming is an associate professor in the Division of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. A medical oncologist at the UW Carbone Cancer Center, his primary clinical focus is on patients living with gastrointestinal cancers, including colorectal cancer and esophageal cancer. He is an early-age onset rectal cancer survivor himself. His research program focuses on developing precision medicine treatments for different subtypes of colon cancer. For example, his laboratory has developed 3-dimensional cell culture techniques for clinical cancer research and is identifying new and improved biomarkers. He chairs the ECOG-ACRIN Developmental Therapeutics Committee.

Honors and awards bestowed upon Dr. Deming include being named to the Best Doctors in America list on multiple occasions, being designated as UW Health Patient Experience Physician Champion on the basis of patient satisfaction, being appointed as Young Investigator to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Rectal and Anal Cancer Task Force, and receiving the Award of Distinction for Translational Research at the 2014 ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Symposium. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, The V Foundation, the Wisconsin Partnership Program, and the American Cancer Society, among others. Click to view ECOG-ACRIN’s tribute video to Dr. Deming.

Remarkable Mentor to Women in Oncology Award

Heather A. Wakelee, MD, is the 2024 recipient of the Remarkable Mentor to Women in Oncology Award. This professional honor, initiated by the ECOG-ACRIN Task Force on Advancement for Women in 2023, recognizes an ECOG-ACRIN member for their sustained commitment to developing the careers of women in cancer medicine and advancing women investigators in ECOG-ACRIN. Dr. Wakelee is the division chief for medical oncology and the deputy director of the Stanford Cancer Institute at Stanford University. She is the Winston Chen and Phyllis Huang Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her expertise as a physician-scientist focuses on the treatment of patients living with lung cancer, thymoma, and mesothelioma. She was ECOG-ACRIN’s Young Investigator of the Year for 2015.

Dr. Wakelee’s track record of mentorship is outstanding, having mentored many individuals, particularly women, within her institution, Stanford University, the ECOG-ACRIN Thoracic Cancer Committee (which she co-chaired for several years) and at the national and international levels. Many of her mentees are now in distinguished careers at academic institutions across the country, and are the first authors of research manuscripts in prominent publications. Notably, Dr. Wakeleee served as the president of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer from 2021-2023 and, in that role, prioritized the career development of women. She is also an active participant in the annual ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Symposium. A trailblazer in oncology, when Dr. Wakelee joined the faculty at Stanford University, she was the only oncologist focused on clinical research for thoracic malignancies. She spearheaded Stanford’s lung cancer research program into eminence, all the while passing on her experience and wisdom to trainees. She continues to use her leadership positions to mentor women and advocate for equal representation in research.

Paul Carbone, MD Fellowship Award
Now in its 20th Year

Tarek H. Mouhieddine, MD, is the 2024 recipient of the Paul Carbone, MD Fellowship Award, a one-year, one-time research grant to develop and promote excellence in a clinical trial project that carries the potential for leading to improvements in cancer care. Dr. Mouhieddine is a hematology and oncology fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY, where he also completed his residency. Previously, he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute after earning his medical degree from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. His Carbone research project is titled “Targeting PD1/Tim3 to Overcome Immunogenic Resistance to Bispecific Antibody in Multiple Myeloma.” Click to view ECOG-ACRIN’s tribute video to Dr. Mouhieddine.

These awards are funded by the ECOG Research & Education Foundation.

About ECOG-ACRIN

The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) is an expansive membership-based scientific organization that designs and conducts cancer research involving adults who have or are at risk of developing cancer. The Group is known for advancing precision medicine and biomarker research through its leadership of major national clinical trials integrating cutting-edge genomic approaches. comprises nearly 1400 member institutions and 21,000 research professionals in the United States and around the world. ECOG-ACRIN Member researchers and advocates collaborate across more than 40 scientific committees to design studies spanning the cancer care spectrum, from early detection to management of advanced disease. ECOG-ACRIN is funded primarily by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. Visit ecog-acrin.org, and follow us on X @eaonc, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, or call 215.789.3631.