Newswise — Yale scientist Craig M. Crews is the recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research Award granted by the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR).

This award is presented for outstanding, novel, and significant chemistry research, which has led to important contributions to the fields of basic cancer research, translational cancer research, cancer diagnosis, the prevention of cancer, or the treatment of patients with cancer.

Crews is the Lewis B. Cullman Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and professor of chemistry, as well as executive director of the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery.

His lab at Yale has developed a new form of drug, Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras or PROTACs, which engages the cells’ own protein degradation machinery to destroy targeted proteins by tagging them for removal. The new drugs are being developed by New Haven biotechnology company Arvinas, LLC.

Crews will deliver his award lecture, titled "PROTACs: Targeted Protein Degradation as a Therapeutic Strategy,” at the AACR annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on April 4.