The Children’s Tumor Foundation’s (CTF) Friedrich von Recklinghausen Award is given to individuals in the professional neurofibromatosis community who have made significant contributions to neurofibromatosis research or clinical care. It is named after Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen (1833-1910), the German physician who first described ‘von Recklinghausen’s disease’, what we now know as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).
It is with great pleasure that the Children’s Tumor Foundation announces the recipient of the 2023 Friedrich von Recklinghausen Award, Margaret Wallace, PhD. Dr. Margaret Wallace (aka Peggy) is a cornerstone NF field researcher. While she was a postdoctoral Young Investigators Award (YIA) fellow in the lab of Dr. Francis Collins at the University of Michigan, she played a vital role in cloning the NF1 gene in 1990. After her YIA fellowship, Peggy established her molecular genetics lab at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, and has since focused on finding and characterizing gene variants/mechanisms that contribute to NF manifestations through approaches of molecular genetics/genomics, cell biology, and animal models.
Peggy has numerous groundbreaking research papers and is the prime example of teamwork and open sharing. She created the first openly available NF immortalized cell lines that shipped these valuable research tools to researchers all over the world. Together with Dr. Andrea McClatchey, she co-chaired the highly successful Young Investigator Award program for over 15 years, which has funded nearly 200 young researchers leading to a wealth of new insights, hundreds of publications, follow-up funding for NF from other agencies, new researchers in the field, preclinical studies and clinical trials. Since 2018, Peggy also leads a group of world-class experts in NF1 gene therapy that focuses on gene delivery and gene editing.
The Children’s Tumor Foundation, along with her colleagues and peers, is proud and thrilled to recognize Dr. Wallace with the 2023 Friedrich von Recklinghausen Award, not only for her many outstanding achievements over her years in the field but also for her dedicated efforts in supporting the entire NF community. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Wallace for this well-deserved honor.
