Tony Pawson, winner of the 2008 Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences and a researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital, has died, the Toronto Star reports. He was 60.
In 1990, Pawson, a cancer researcher, and his team reported that they uncovered the mechanism of how cells communicate through signal transduction, a finding that led to his Kyoto award. According to the Toronto Star, he was "one of Canada’s best bets for a Nobel Prize in Medicine."
“He revolutionized our understanding of cell signaling, and his brilliant work has no doubt saved many lives and will continue to do so,” Christine Williams, vice president of research at the Canadian Cancer Society, tells the Star.