Top ASH honour for Prof Mark Dawson
19 June 2025
For his pioneering study of the epigenetic drivers of blood cancer, Peter Mac’s Professor Mark Dawson has received a top honour from the American Society of Hematology (ASH).
Prof Dawson is the 2025 recipient of ASH’s William Dameshek Prize. He's the first Australian scientist to receive this honour which is rarely awarded outside of the US.
This prize recognises scientists who have made “outstanding contributions leading to a new fundamental understanding of hematology” before the age of 50.
ASH describes Prof Dawson as a “clinician-scientist ... celebrated for his contributions to the understanding of epigenetics, the process by which our DNA is accessed to turn genes on and off, and its relationship to the development of hematologic cancers”.
His lab at Peter Mac is credited with identifying how various epigenetic proteins - including BRD4 and KAT7 - influences gene expression to maintain cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.
This has led to new understanding of how cancers co-opt the activity of these epigenetic proteins to evade the immune system, or adapt in response to cancer treatment.
“His discoveries have shaped how hematologists think about epigenetic regulation of hematologic malignancies and provided the field with novel epigenetic therapies and cutting-edge strategies to improve clinical outcomes for patients with blood cancers,” ASH says on its website.
This prize has been awarded annually since 1974 and is named after late ASH president Dr William Dameshek who was also the first editor of the scientific journal Blood.
While this news was made public today, Prof Dawson will be formally presented with the prize at the next ASH annual scientific meeting in the US in December.
Read more and see all 2025 prize recipients on the ASH website.