AACR honors WashU Medicine investigators
Three cancer researchers recognized for contributions to field
Matt Miller/WashU Medicine(From left to right) Kenneth M. Murphy, MD, PhD; John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD; and Sheila A. Stewart, PhD
Three WashU Medicine faculty members have received honors from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for their contributions to the understanding and treatment of cancer.
The WashU Medicine investigators — Kenneth M. Murphy, MD, PhD; John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD; and Sheila A. Stewart, PhD — were recognized at the 2026 AACR Annual Meeting, held in April in San Diego. All are research members at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine.
Murphy, the Eugene Opie First Centennial Professor of Pathology and Immunology, received the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research-Cancer Research Institute (AACR-CRI) Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology. Murphy’s groundbreaking work is focused on dendritic cells, a type of immune cell, seeking to understand how they develop and take on specialized roles in controlling the body’s immune response, especially to cancer cells.
DiPersio, the Virginia E. and Sam J. Golman Endowed Professor of Medicine who treats patients at Siteman, received the AACR’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blood Cancer Research, honoring his decades of innovations that have transformed the understanding and treatment of blood cancers. Over a long career, he has made outstanding contributions to improving stem cell transplantation, reducing sometimes life-threatening graft-versus-host disease, and to developing novel CAR-T cell therapies.
Stewart, the Gerty Cori Professor and vice chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, has been elected to the AACR Board of Directors and was sworn in at the April meeting. Her work is focused on how the stroma — the noncancerous portion of tumors — promotes cancer development.
Read more about Murphy’s, DiPersio’s and Stewart’s honors on the Siteman Cancer Center website.
