Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D., Receives 2023 Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary Distinguished Honoree Award
| The University of Medical Sciences (UAMS) Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary recognized Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D., as its 2023 Distinguished Honoree at a Sept. 21 reception at the home of Marge Schueck, a longtime volunteer and supporter of the Cancer Institute.
Birrer is the director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and a vice chancellor at UAMS. He also holds the Kent C. Westbrook, M.D. Director’s Chair for the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
Guests attending the event included UAMS and Cancer Institute leaders and Cancer Institute Auxiliary board members.
“I am pleased to have the opportunity to tell you more about Dr. Birrer,” said Laura Hutchins, M.D., a hematologist oncologist and former interim director of the Cancer Institute. “He has been the recipient of 18 awards, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director’s Service Award bestowed in 2021. He serves on six editorial boards, has mentored 24 successful physicians and scientists, lectured and organized conferences around the world, is the inventor of six patents and is the author of 459 papers and 32 book chapters.
“Most impressively, he has had continuous grant funding since 1988. That is a major accomplishment,” she noted.
Birrer’s major research interest is in characterizing the genomics of gynecologic cancers and translating those into improving the clinical management of these diseases. His most recent success was published in the prestigious journal, Cell, which describes a genomic signature he helped discover that predicts resistance to standard therapy in an aggressive form of ovarian cancer.
“The significance for patients is that those whose cancers have this signature may move to newer therapies rather than taking therapy that will not work and then potentially becoming too sick to tolerate newer treatments,” added Hutchins.
Dr. Michael Birrer’s portrait was unveiled during the reception and will now hang in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute next to the portraits of all previous winners.portrait by Bryan Clifton
Since joining UAMS, Birrer has opened a new Phase 1 Clinical Trial Unit — the only one in the state of Arkansas, revamped the Cancer Clinical Trials offices, recruited 22 cancer researchers and 18 physicians, established community outreach and engagement and cancer research training and education programs, appointed three associate directors in Cancer Institute leadership, and continued to increase cancer grant funding necessary for NCI designation.
“We are very pleased he is here. He is a worthy recipient of this honor,” said Hutchins.
Birrer graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York with medical and doctoral degrees. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, followed by a fellowship in medical oncology at the NCI, where he worked for 20 years. In 2008, he became a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital where he led the Gynecologic Cancer Program. Later, he became director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham before being appointed director of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute in 2019.
Birrer is the 28th honoree. Previous recipients include UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA; Gwendolyn Bryant-Smith, M.D.; Kent Westbrook, M.D.; James Suen., M.D.; Laura Hutchins, M.D.; Ronda Henry-Tillman, M.D.; John Shaughnessy, Ph.D.; Janie Lowe; Rangaswamy Govindarajan, M.D.; Matthew Steliga, M.D.; Frits van Rhee, M.D., Ph.D.; Richard Nicholas, M.D.; Aubrey Hough, M.D.; Peter Crooks, Ph.D.; and Thomas Keiber-Emmons, Ph.D.