Over the last three decades, he has focused his laboratory and clinical research studies on multiple myeloma. He has developed laboratory and animal models of the tumor in it is microenvironment which have allowed for both identification of novel targets and validation of novel targeted therapies, and has then rapidly translated these studies to clinical trials culminating in FDA approval of novel targeted therapies. His paradigm for identifying and validating targets in the tumor cell and its milieu has transformed myeloma therapy and markedly improved patient outcome.
He is the recipient of many scientific and humanitarian awards including the International Myeloma Workshop Waldenstrom’s Award in 2003, the International Myeloma Foundation Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005, the American Association for Cancer Research Joseph H. Burchenal Award in 2007, and the American Society of Hematology William Dameshek Prize in 2008. He was elected into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2009, as well as the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Pathologists (UK) in 2010. In 2011 he received the American Society of Clinical Oncology David A. Karnofsky Award and the Hope Funds for Cancer Research Award of Excellence in Clinical Research, and in 2012 received the Ron Burton Humanitarian Award, the Harvard Medical School Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, and the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor. In 2013 he was the Distinguished Clinical Science Lecturer at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and received the Leonard P. Zakim Patient Advocacy Award, and in 2014 was the recipient of the David Workman Memorial Award from the Samuel Waxman Research Foundation, and the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center Annual Zubrod Memorial Award