Lito Receives FNIH Trailblazer Award

January 4, 2022 

Michigan State University alumnus Piro Lito, M.D. ('08), Ph.D. ('06), was recently awarded the 2021 Trailblazer Prize for Clinician-Scientists by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). The award includes a $10,000 honorarium and is given annually by the FNIH from a jury of distinguished biomedical research leaders. The jury selected Lito in recognition of outstanding research contributions as an early career clinician-scientist.

Lito is attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center whose research breakthroughs in the areas of oncoprotein signaling and development of novel therapeutic cancer approaches translate directly to patients. Lito served as a principal investigator of the first-in-human clinical trial to test the effects of KRAS inhibitors—research which helped establish an FDA-approved KRAS therapy for lung cancer patients.

Lito received a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from the MSU College of Social Science in 2006, and a medical degree in 2008 from the MSU College of Human Medicine; and admits he is "honored and humbled to be the recipient of the Trailblazer Prize for Clinician-Scientists."

"The work recognized by this award reflects tremendous effort by the members of my laboratory and close collaborations with a remarkable group of physicians and scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and partnering institutions," Lito said. 

Dr. Lito is the fourth recipient of the award, which is made possible through the generosity of John I. Gallin, M.D., and Elaine K. Gallin, Ph.D..

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