Dr. Vonderheide is the Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) is thrilled to award its highest scientific honor, the Jill Rose Award for Scientific Excellence, to Dr. Robert Vonderheide, a leading authority in cancer immunology. The award will be presented at BCRF’s annual New York Symposium and Awards Luncheon on Oct. 30.
“It took my breath away to learn I had been selected for the Jill Rose Award for Scientific Excellence,” Dr. Vonderheide said. “It is a legacy of hope, persistence and progress — how research can help patients and their families. It’s an honor to have this opportunity to represent BCRF and the Rose Family and carry on this powerful tradition. I am truly humbled.”
The director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Vonderheide conducts groundbreaking research that has advanced the understanding of the immune system and gene therapy to prevent breast cancer in women who are at high risk — including those who carry BRCA1 and BCRA2 mutations.
“My team and I believe the immune system can naturally control and prevent breast cancer,” Dr. Vonderheide said. “Our research aims to leverage powerful insights about immune therapy generated over the last decade and bring them forward for immune prevention and interception. We hope to alert the immune system to the very first steps when a cell changes to cancer and stop breast cancer in its tracks.”
Dr. Vonderheide and his team are currently conducting a phase I clinical trial to test a DNA-based vaccine in BRCA mutation carriers with and without breast cancer. The vaccine they developed targets a group of proteins called human telomerase catalytic domain (hTERT), which is overexpressed in more than 95 percent of breast cancers.
A BCRF investigator since 2007, Dr. Vonderheide says the foundation’s unique approach to funding cancer research has helped support his work both financially and logistically.
“BCRF brings a huge team of researchers from across the world together and fosters collaboration,” he said. “This approach has allowed my team to move fast and adapt, following the science to reach our goal, knowing that BCRF will be there. In our work on immune prevention, we have taken an idea, refined it in the lab and moved it to advanced clinical testing.”
The Jill Rose Award is the second honor Dr. Vonderheide has received this year. In March, he was elected to the 2025 class of Fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy. He is a member of several national scientific organizations, including the National Academy of Medicine, the National Cancer Advisory Board Working Group on Extramural Research Concepts and Programs, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Board of Directors, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and American Association of Physicians. Dr. Vonderheide’s research has been published in Nature, Science, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Past Jill Rose award recipients include:
Dr. Judy Garber (2024); Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade (2023); Maria Jasin (2022); Lesley Fallowfield (2021); William Kaelin (2020); Eric Winer (2019); Hedvig Hricak (2018); Nancy Davidson (2017); Charles Perou (2016); Joan Brugge (2015); Peter Greenwald (2014); Titia de Lange (2013); Gabriel Hortobagyi (2012); Mina Bissell (2011); Angela Brodie (2010); Martine Piccart (2009); Robert A. Weinberg (2008); George Sledge (2007); Larry Norton (2006); Patricia Ganz (2005); Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus (2004); Bernard Fisher (2003); Harold Freeman (2002); Arnold Levine (2001); Walter Willett (2000); John Mendelsohn (1999); Benita Katzenellenbogen (1998); Judah Folkman (1997); and Mary Claire King and Joan Marks (1996).
