SHAZIB PERVAIZ
On behalf of Drs. Zahra Zakeri and Richard Lockshin, and the Board of Directions of the international Cell Death Society (ICDS), it is my great pleasure to present the 2025 ICDS Prize to Professor Shazib Pervaiz, for his outstanding contributions to field of Cell Death over the past 3+ decades.
Shazib, a native of Pakistan, received his BS degree from King Edward Medical College, Lahore in 1984 before emigrating to the US to complete a PhD from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and postdoctoral training from Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital in Boston.
It was during his postdoctoral work that Shazib became interested in cell death, exploring how T cells kill tumor cells and the role of novel cytokines in the differentiation of T helper cells.
After his training at Harvard, Shazib migrated to NUS in Singapore where has been on the faculty for almost 30 years, achieving rank of Full Professor, Senior Faculty to the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, and previously Deputy Director of the NUS Medical Institutes. He has numerous research, teaching, and academic awards, and visiting scientist positions all over the world, including in the United States, France, China, and Australia.
Over the last 30 years, Shazib has developed a bold, and–somewhat true to his nature–adventurous research program that at times challenges and questions dogmas. With a focus on redox signaling and biology in cancer development, his laboratory has elegantly shown that reactive oxygen species, and a pro-oxidant state, can foster adaptations in cancer cells that result in drug resistance. His lab has discovered many key signaling pathways in ROS adapted tumor cells, including how ROS targets kinases and phosphatases (the latter having active cysteine residues in the catalytic site) and how ROS impinges on Bcl-2 and mitochondrial/caspase -mediated cell death. He and his colleagues have defined new terminologies of Onco-ROS and Tumor Suppressor ROS that are applicable to a wide range of cancers. His more recent work identifying compounds that target mutant KRAS (the gene that makes K-Ras, Kirsten Rat Sarcoma protein) to super-activate ROS are poised to contribute to a new class of targeted therapeutics. Since KRAS is very frequently mutated in colorectal and several other cancers, the ability to induce only the mutant cells to activate death pathways would be a much less toxic and very promising therapeutic advance.
In addition to his wonderful science, Shazib is passionate for life’s adventures. He is a competitive athlete and a certified life coach, who strongly believes in the remarkable power of human spirit and introspection. Incidentally, Shazib won second place in his age-group at the AACR 5K run in Chicago, and as a researcher is figuratively running well ahead of his competition. On behalf of the ICDS and the ICDS Board of Trustees, it is our great pleasure to present you the 2025 ICDS Prize for outstanding contributions to Cell Death.
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