Carlo M. Croce

Carlo M. Croce (born December 17, 1944) is an Italian medical doctor, specializing in oncology and noted for research into the genetic mechanisms of cancer. Croce is one of the most highly recognized and awarded Italian researchers in the world, and is currently involved in the study of microRNAs and their role in oncology.
Croce has received numerous awards, including the 2006 Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research for his discoveries of the molecular mechanisms of Leukemia. In 2010, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Based on his merit in the field of science, he was awarded the honour of Cavaliere di Gran Croce by the President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and is ranked first on the Italian Academy's list of the 715 Italian scientists having the most impact on medical research around the world.
He is now Director of Human Cancer Genetics, Chairman of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics, and Director of the Institute of Genetics at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Ferrara School of Medicine.

Croce was born on December 17, 1944 in Milan, Italy to a housewife and a mechanical engineer. At age 2, he moved to Rome with his family. In 1963 he entered the school of medicine of La Sapienza University of Rome and graduated in 1969 with "summa cum laude" in medicine and Latin.

He began his career in the United States the following year as an associate scientist at the Wistar Institute of Biology and Anatomy in Philadelphia. In 1980, he was named Wistar Professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania and associate director of the Wistar Institute, titles he held until 1988. From 1988-91, he was director of the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. In 1991, Dr. Croce was named Director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Medical College at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. While at Jefferson, he discovered the role of microRNAs in cancer pathogenesis and progression, implicating a new class of genes in cancer causation.

In 2004 he moved to Ohio State University, where under his direction the faculty within the Human Cancer Genetics Program conduct both clinical and basic research. Basic research projects focus on how genes are activated and inactivated, how cell-growth signals are transmitted and regulated within cells, and how cells interact with the immune system. Clinical research focuses on discovering genes linked to cancer and mutations that predispose people to cancer.

A researcher whose work has revealed cancer is the result of somatic genetic changes, he has received the 30th Annual Jeffrey A. Gottlieb Memorial Award. He has discovered the juxtaposition of the human immunoglobulin genes to the MYC oncogene and the deregulation of MYC in Burkitt lymphoma, the MLL gene involved in acute leukemias, the TCL1A gene associated with T-cell leukemias, and cloned, named and characterized the BCL2 gene involved in follicular lymphoma. Dr. Croce has also uncovered the early events involved in the pathogenesis of lung, nasopharyngeal, head and neck, esophageal, gastrointestinal and breast cancers. His discoveries have led to revolutionary innovations in the development of novel and successful approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment, based on gene-target discovery, verification and rational drug development.

Croce receiving the InBev-Baillet Latour Prize for Outstanding Human Value in the Arts and Sciences from HRH Queen Mathilde of Belgium

Dr. Croce, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the US and the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta deiXL in Italy, has received almost every significant award for cancer research that one can earn. He was awarded two Outstanding Investigator awards from the National Cancer Institute, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award and the G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the John Scott Award, the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Cancer Award, the GM Cancer Research Foundation - Charles S. Mott Prize, the Scanno Prize for Medicine, the AACR-Pezcoller Award, the Raymond Bourgine Award and Gold Medal of Paris and President of the Republic Prize, the iwCLL Binet-Rai-Medal for Outstanding Contribution to CLL Research, the Henry M. Stratton Medal from the American Society of Hematology, the Albert Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, the Leopold Griffuel Prize awarded by the French Association for Cancer Research, The Ernst W. Bertner Memorial Award, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and most recently, an Elected Member of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is principal investigator on seven federal research grants and has more than 875 peer-reviewed, published research papers.

Croce has two children, one born in 1979 and the other in 1997.

• 1975 Research Career Development Award, The National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD
• 1985 Outstanding Investigator Award, The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda MD
• 1987 Scientific Award, American Cancer Society, Philadelphia Division
• 1990 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award, Association for Cancer Research
• 1992 Eagles Fly for Leukemia Lifetime Achievement Award
• 1992 Scanno Prize for Medicine
• 1992 Outstanding Investigator Award, The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda MD
• 1993 Charles S. Mott Prize, General Motors Cancer Research Foundation
• 1993 John Scott Award
• 1994 Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Cancer Award
• 1994 Honorary Member, Japanese Cancer Association
• 1995 CLAS Distinguished Scientist Award
• 1996 National Academy of Sciences MVIMG
• 1997 Rudolf Virchow Honorary Lectureship, University of Wurzburg, Germany
• 1997 Scientific Excellence in Medicine Award, American-Italian Cancer Foundation
• 1997 The Twenty-Fifth Solomon A. Berson Memorial Lecture, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, NY
• 1999 Raymond Bourgine Award and Gold Medal of Paris
• 1999 The 1999 AACR-Pezcoller International Award for Cancer Research, American Association for Cancer Research
• 1999 The 1999 Herz Memorial Lecture in Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University
• 2000 Doctor in Medicine, Honoris Causa, Uppsala University, Sweden
• 2000 Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• 2001 Clavius Award for Achievement in Science and Research
• 2002 Rod and Ceil Mortel Lecture in Cancer Research, Penn State University
• 2003 Italian Gold Medal for Public Health, Presented by President Ciampi
• 2003 President of the Republic Prize, Accademia di Lincei
• 2003 Golgi Lecture, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei
• 2003 Foreign Member, Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze, delta dei XL
• 2004 Premio Beccaria, A. Serra Foundation for Cancer Research
• 2005 Gottlieb Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• 2005 Prix Leopold Griffuel, sponsored by the French Association for Cancer Research
• 2006 G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award, American Association for Cancer Research
• 2010 Fellow, Fellow. American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), Cambridge, MA, United States.
• 2011 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research
• 2012 Anthony Dipple Award for major contributions to the field of carcinogenesis
• 2013 InBev-Baillet Latour prize for outstanding human value in the Arts and Sciences