mice lacked the recombination activating gene (RAG) required for adaptive immune responses and the STAT1 gene that is required for innate responses. Schreiber's lab was the first to generate STAT1 deficient mice and has worked to characterize the important role of this gene in innate immunity. In 2001, in a landmark paper, Schreiber reported that RAG2 knockout mice, which lack an adaptive immune system (T and B cells), had a dramatically increased rate of tumor formation compared to wild type mice. This study invalidated the conclusions of the Stutman study, and revived the idea that the immune system could play a critical role. Subsequent work showed that tumors escape immune recognition by losing their antigenicity in a process he named cancer immunoediting. These studies have been critical in forming the scientific basis of many of the immune mediated strategies currently being tested in patients as anti-tumor regimens. Not only do these studies confirm that the immune system can, in fact, play an important role in destroying tumors, but they support the idea that better understanding of immunological recognition and regulation will lead to breakthroughs in our ability to eradicate tumors using the immune system. Awards 1996 Milstein Award for Outstanding Achievements in Interferons and Cytokines, International Society of Interferon and Cytokine Research 1998 Society of Leukocyte Biology, Bonazinga Award 2001 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award 2007 Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research 2008 Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award, Washington University 2010 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member 2013 American National Academy of Sciences, member Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Member of the Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Cancer Institute Affiliate of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research 2014 AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology 2017 Balzan Prize for Immunological Approaches in Cancer Therapy (jointly with James P. Allison). Notes Further reading Science Museum, UK Cancer research Wustl News Wustl people External links Robert Schreiber's Profile at Parker Institute 1946 births Living people 21st-century American biologists Washington University in St. Louis faculty American immunologists Scripps Research faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences