Janet Davison Rowley has won this year’s Gruber Prize in genetics for research that has “revolutionized how cancer is understood and treated,” the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, which presents the prize, announced today. Dr. Rowley, whose research is believed to have established cancer as a genetic disease, is the Blum-Riese distinguished service professor at the University of Chicago. She will receive the $500,000 prize in October at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, in Honolulu. Viewed as a leader in cancer cytogenetics and molecular oncology, Dr. Rowley was among the few scientists in the 1960s who believed chromosomal aberrations caused tumors. Her discoveries since then have also uncovered mutated genes in leukemia and lymphoma cells, which help transform normal cells into cancerous ones. Thanks to her research, new techniques have been developed to identify DNA damage within cells. The methods offer a more precise diagnosis as well as a more effective treatment. The Gruber International Prize Program awards prizes annually in cosmology, genetics, neuroscience, justice, and women’s rights. —Erica R. Hendry