美国著名的 Memorial Sloan-Kettering癌症中心病理科2010年度的Fred Waldorf Stewart 奖授予University of Nebraska Medical Center的著名分子遗传学病理学家Dr Julia A. Bridge,以表彰他在人类肿瘤疾病认识过程中做出的巨大贡献。

The 2010 Fred W. Stewart Award Recipient: Julia A. Bridge, MD

Dr Julia A. Bridge is the 2010 recipient of the Fred Waldorf Stewart Award, bestowed annually by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Department of Pathology on an individual deemed to have contributed significantly to the study of human neoplastic disease.

Dr Bridge is a board-certified anatomic pathologist and cytogeneticist practicing surgical pathology, cytopathology,cytogenetics, and molecular diagnostics. She received her MD degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1984, followed by residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Kansas University Medical Center.As a pathology resident there, with undergraduate training in mouse tumor karyotyping, she became interested in human cancer cytogenetics and set up a cytogenetic laboratory to study lymphomas and bone and soft tissue neoplasms with departmental and, subsequently, extramural funding received as a senior resident. She further developed this focus in the final 6 months of her pathology residency, which were as a Special Fellow in Clinical Cytogenetics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She then completed an additional fellowship at the Southwest Biomedical Research Institute in Scottsdale under Dr Avery A. Sandberg, the father of cancer cytogenetics,at the same time as she held her first academic position as a clinical assistant professor in Pathology and Oncology at the University of Kansas. In 1991, she returned to the University of Nebraska as an associate professor of Pathology, Pediatrics, and Orthopaedic Surgery. By 1999, she was promoted to the rank of professor; in this year, she also received the Kappa Delta Investigator Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. In 2003, she was the recipient of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) Young Investigator Award.

In nearly 200 publications, Dr Bridge has contributed to the precise cytogenetic characterization of many,
possibly most, benign and malignant bone/soft tissue tumors. Her encyclopedic knowledge of the cytogenetics
of these entities, along with their histopathology, has made her a major contributor to both the World Health
Organization of Classification of Tumors (Pathology and Genetics of Tumours of Soft Tissue and Bone)
and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Fascicle on Tumors of Bones and Joints, of which she is a coauthor. Her cytogenetic studies have provided the initial description of many specific recurrent translocations,a necessary step that led to the identification of many gene fusions driving sarcomagenesis, by her laboratory or by other researchers. For instance, fusion genes identified and characterized by the Bridge laboratory have included several ALK fusions in inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, variant PAX3 fusions in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, variant USP6 fusions in aneurysmal bone cyst, a novel EWS fusion, and the C11orf95-MKL2 fusion oncogene in chondroid lipoma. She is also an invaluable collaborator appreciated by many, including the writer of this tribute, with whom she worked on the cloning of the ASPL-TFE3 fusion in alveolar soft part sarcoma, among many other projects.

Aside from chromosomal translocations, cytogenetic investigations by Dr Bridge have also been instrumental in defining tumor suppressor genes and amplified oncogenes in bone and soft tissue tumors. Her identification of recurrent 5q21-22, 9q22.3, and 8q24.1 losses in sporadic desmoid tumors, cardiac fibromas, and osteochondromas, respectively, implicated the familial adenomatosis polyposis gene, FAP, the Gorlin syndrome gene, PTCH1, and the hereditary multiple exostoses gene,EXT1, originally identified in familial cancer syndromes, in these sporadic tumors. Her cytogenetic descriptions of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans and parosteal osteosarcoma have established genomic amplification as their defining genetic features.

On the diagnostic molecular cytogenetics front, Dr Bridge has established and validated fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays for many genetic aberrations,including PAX3, PAX7, FOXO1, NCOA1, and
NCOA2 in rhabdomyosarcoma, COL1A1 and PDGFB in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, and ALK and VHL in pediatric renal cell carcinoma, to name a few. She was also a key investigator in the studies leading to the Food and Drug Administration approval of the INFORM HER2 FISH assay and the UroVysion bladder cancer
FISH assay. Her clinical laboratory also served for many years as the reference laboratory for all soft tissue
sarcomas for the Children’s Oncology Group.

Dr Bridge is widely recognized as an excellent teacher.She has served on the USCAP Education Committee and Council and, most notably, has for many years been the course director for the highly successful USCAP Special Course on Basic Molecular Pathology of Cancer (formerly Introductory Molecular Pathology). Over the years, Dr Bridge has also served on the Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Ewing Sarcoma Committees of the Children’s Oncology Group, the World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of Soft Tissue and Bone Working Group, the CAP Molecular Oncology Committee, the Veterans Affairs Genomic Medicine Program Advisory Committee, and the USCAP F. Stephen Vogel, Stowell-Orbison, and Young Investigator Award Committees and the USCAP Sustaining the Academy Development Committee.She has also served, or actively serves, on the editorial boards of Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics,The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, Modern Pathology,The Journal of Orthopaedic Science, and Cancer Cytopathology.

Cancer cytogenetics is one of the foundations of our growing understanding of human cancer that
drives improved diagnosis and therapy. Through her career-long effort in this area, Dr Bridge has made many
significant contributions to the study of human neoplastic disease. She is one of the most highly respected figures in cancer cytogenetics and is also recognized as a great educator, using her combined expertise in pathology,cancer cytogenetics, and research to spread learning and knowledge. On behalf of her friends and colleagues,I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Dr Julia Bridge on this well deserved Fred W. Stewart award.

                                                                                                                                        Marc Ladanyi, MD,

                                                             Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center