Jeffrey Brodsky, PhD, Yuan Chang, MD, and Patrick Moore, MD, MPH, faculty of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and professors of the University of Pittsburgh, were announced as members to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy is a beacon of excellence and leadership across a wide range of disciplines with the mission to unite leaders and innovators from every field of human endeavor to advance the public good.
Drs. Brodsky, Chang, and Moore join Chancellor Joan Gabel and Elizabeth Arkush of the University of Pittsburgh, who are among the 250 members of the Academy elected in 2024.
Dr. Brodsky is a renowned cell biologist whose work contributed to the discovery of the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway. The importance of ERAD is underscored by the fact that more than 70 human diseases, including several cancers, are associated with this pathway. Dr. Brodsky leads the Center for Protein Conformational Diseases, has been recognized for his teaching and research excellence throughout his career, and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Drs. Chang and Moore, working as a team in the Chang-Moore lab, discovered two of the seven known human viruses that cause cancer. They discovered the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpes virus, or human herpesvirus 8 (KSHV/HHV8) in 1994. The virus causes Kaposi’s sarcoma, the most common AIDS-related malignancy and one of the most frequently occurring cancers in Africa. Prior to this discovery, medical researchers had worked for nearly 15 years to find an infectious agent associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma. The pair also identified Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV)—the cause of Merkel cell carcinoma, one of the world’s most clinically aggressive skin cancers—in 2008.
Drs. Chang and Moore have been widely recognized for their work, which has garnered some of the highest national and international honors in medicine, infectious disease, and cancer. They have been honored with the 2017 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, the 2012 Marjorie Stephenson Prize from the Society of General Microbiology in the United Kingdom; the 2003 Charles S. Mott Award from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation; the 1998 Robert Koch Prize; and the 1997 Meyenburg Prize. Drs. Chang and Moore also are elected fellows of the National Academy of Sciences.
