Scott Lowe is Chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Medicine. He studies how the genetic alterations contribute to cancer and its responses to treatment. A focus is the body’s own tumor-suppressing processes. Lowe discovered tumor-suppressing roles for processes known as apoptosis and cellular senescence, and he identified a key protein, p53, as a trigger for them both. He showed that p53 can determine whether cancers respond to or resist chemotherapy. In addition, he uncovered means of harnessing cellular senescence to make cancer therapies more effective.
In AML, Lowe has clarified the role of p53 in therapy resistance, identified multiple ways in which chromosomal rearrangements drive leukemia, pinpointed effects of p53, and discovered novel dependencies. Overall, his work has identified new therapeutic approaches that have led to clinical trials.