Dr. Antoni Ribas honored with the 2026 AACR Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research
The AACR will present the 2026 AACR-Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research during the AACR Annual Meeting 2026
19 Apr 2026
Dr. Antoni Ribas. Photo courtesy of UCLA Health
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will present the 2026 AACR-Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research to Dr. Antoni Ribas, MD, Fellow of the AACR Academy, during the AACR Annual Meeting 2026, April 17–22 in San Diego, California.
Dr. Ribas is professor of medicine, surgery, and molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Center at UCLA.
He is being recognized for his leadership and achievements in cancer research, including pioneering contributions to melanoma biology and cancer immunotherapy that have been instrumental in the clinical development of pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) and other transformative therapies.
His seminal research has accelerated progress in cancer treatment by defining mechanisms of immunotherapy response and resistance, which has guided the design of innovative combination therapy approaches.
The AACR-Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research was established in 2007 in honor of Dr. Margaret Foti, MD (hc), Chief Executive Officer of the AACR, for her leadership of the AACR, and her sustained dedication to the conquest of cancer through research, scholarly publications, communication, collaborations, education and training, fundraising for cancer research, and science policy.
This award is presented annually to an individual whose leadership and extraordinary achievements in cancer research have made a major impact in the field.
Dr. Ribas was instrumental in the development of pembrolizumab, the first single-agent anti-PD-1 immunotherapy for the treatment of melanoma and several other cancer types. He was the principal investigator of the KEYNOTE-001 trial, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of pembrolizumab.. As a result of this trial, pembrolizumab received 'Breakthrough Therapy' designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2013 and FDA approval in 2014.
In addition to his work on PD-1, Dr. Ribas has contributed to the understanding of how proteins such as BRAF, CTLA-4, and MEK may be targeted for cancer treatment. Recently, he and his team have focused on molecular imaging and advanced monitoring of the immune system, using technologies such as PET scans to precisely investigate how novel immunotherapies function at the molecular level.
A member of the AACR since 1999, Dr. Ribas served as President of the AACR from 2020–2021. After assuming the AACR Presidency, he launched and served as chair of the AACR COVID-19 and Cancer Task Force (2020–2022) to help the organization navigate the pandemic. He also served on the AACR Board of Directors from 2016-2019 and was elected as a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2020.
Dr. Ribas has also provided editorial guidance to AACR journals, currently serving as editor-in-chief of Cancer Immunology Research, and previously serving as a scientific editor of Cancer Discovery and a member of the editorial board for Clinical Cancer Research.
Dr. Ribas’ award lecture will be held on Monday, April 20, at 16:15 PDT.