as basis for the development of novel multi-targeted drugs. The discovery of the drug Sunitinib and clarification of the multi-specific mechanism of action is partly based on discoveries of Axel Ullrich and his team at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in the 1980s in Munich. The discovery, medical and pharmaceutical development as well as clinical testing of the drug was carried out by about 100+ scientists and physicians, at SUGEN, a company co-founded in 1991 by Ullrich, and the Max Planck Society, and other investors. Sunitinib inhibits cellular signaling by targeting multiple receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). These include all receptors for platelet-derived growth factor (PDGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR), which play a role in both tumor angiogenesis and tumor cell proliferation. The simultaneous inhibition of these targets therefore leads to both reduced tumor vascularization and cancer cell death, and ultimately tumor shrinkage. In the early 1990s, Ullrich and his team identified the signaling system involved in regulating tumor angiogenesis, the growth of blood vessels in tumors. He and his team discovered that inhibiting a key player in the signaling system (called vascular endothelial growth factor receptor or VEGFR) suppresses the generation of blood vessels in tumors and slows down cancer cell growth. Years later, a small molecule inhibitor of the VEGFR2 kinase function was developed, from which a derivative was approved in 2006 for the treatment of kidney carcinoma and gastro-intestinal stromal tumors. Honors and awards 2005 Otto Warburg Medal 2008 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research 2009 Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine 2009 Emanuel Merck Lectureship 2010 Wolf Prize research on human proto-oncogenes and development of novel cancer therapies. 2012 Honorary Doctor of Semmelweis University 2013 Elected Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 2019 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. References External links Ullrich biography ISI page on Ullrich Singapore Oncogenome Project CV at the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry 1943 births Living people German molecular biologists German oncologists University of California, San Francisco alumni Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Fellows of the AACR Academy Max Planck Institute directors