UCLA Engineering Professor Receives Mark Foundation for Cancer Research Award

Aaron Meyer, an assistant professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received a 2023 Emerging Leader Award from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.

The award, which includes a three-year, $750,000 research grant, was established to recognize and support outstanding early-career investigators tackling high-risk, high-reward projects in cancer research. Meyer, who joined five other awardees in the class of 2023, was selected for his research using systems serology to track and reactivate humoral immunity — an antibody-mediated response that occurs when foreign material is detected in the body.

Meyer’s lab at UCLA focuses on measuring and manipulating cell-to-cell communication, with applications in the development of immune and cancer therapies. His other research interests include the improvement of model interpretation within system biology.

A member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Broad Stem Cell Research Center and the Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences at UCLA, Meyer has received several major awards, including the Director’s Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health. He was selected as a Siebel Scholar of The Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation and the recipient of UCLA Samueli’s 2021 Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award.

Founded in 2017, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research partners with scientists, research institutions and philanthropic organizations for cutting-edge cancer research. Over the past five years, the New York-based organization has awarded more than $190 million in grants, including nearly $30 million in research funds to 34 early-career scientists through the foundation’s Emerging Leader Award program.

Dannela Lagrimas contributed to this story.