Prof. Éric Vivier Receives the 2026 William B. Coley Award

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) has awarded the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology to Prof. Éric Vivier, holder of the Natural Killer (NK) Cell Chair of the Fondation Gustave Roussy. This distinction, one of the most prestigious in cancer immunology, recognizes his body of work, which has profoundly transformed the understanding of antitumor immunity and paved the way for new therapeutic approaches.

The William B. Coley Award honors researchers whose discoveries have had a lasting impact on the field of cancer immunology. The award will be presented to Prof. Éric Vivier on October 20, 2026, in New York. He will also deliver the Coley Lecture during the annual Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) conference on November 8, 2026, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Professor of Immunology at Aix Marseille Université, hospital practitioner at Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP-HM), co-founder of the Marseille-Luminy Center of Immunology, and President of the Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster (PSCC), Prof. Éric Vivier is one of the pioneers in the study of NK cells. For more than thirty years, his research has contributed to a better understanding of the essential role these cells play in recognizing and eliminating cancer cells.

At Gustave Roussy, Prof. Éric Vivier leads the Fondation Gustave Roussy Natural Killer (NK) Cell Chair, which explores the therapeutic potential of these cells in order to enhance their antitumor activity and develop new strategies aimed at strengthening the immune response against cancer.

NK Cells at the Heart of Immunotherapy

NK cells are white blood cells involved in innate immunity that can rapidly detect and eliminate cancer cells while sparing healthy cells. They also play a key role in activating other components of the immune response, particularly macrophages and T lymphocytes.

They have helped establish innate immunity as a cornerstone of modern immunotherapy and are now driving the development of new therapeutic approaches currently being evaluated in clinical trials.