2025 O’Donnell Award in Medicine: Lauren Averett Byers, M.D.
Internationally recognized physician-scientist Lauren Averett Byers, M.D., Professor and Thoracic Section Chief of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson, is the recipient of the 2025 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from TAMEST. She was chosen for identifying novel therapeutic strategies and making fundamental discoveries related to small cell lung cancer (SCLC).
SCLC is one of the most aggressive types of cancer. It evolves quickly and can become resistant to treatment early on, making it difficult to manage. With the current standard of care, patients generally lived around one year with the disease. Previously, all SCLC cases were treated the same; however, Dr. Byers and her team noticed that patients were responding differently to various types of treatments.
Utilizing high-throughput molecular profiling, Dr. Byers and her team identified that there are four major types of SCLC as opposed to one. This game-changing discovery led to several advances in the field, including identifying new therapeutic targets and predictive biomarkers for each type. Her team began using a patient’s blood test to understand their cancer and utilized the biomarkers present in the SCLC over time to monitor and manage their treatments.
Since SCLC evolves quickly, her team looked at the drug targets in patients’ blood samples to understand how the cancers escape from treatment. Those discoveries can inform decisions about a patient’s next treatment or combination of treatments. Further, Dr. Byers’ team can utilize these blood samples to generate new models to study and grow SCLC in the laboratory and to pinpoint the new biomarkers to match a patient with a personalized, more effective therapy option. Her work is currently showing promising results in clinical trials, with the goals of confirming more effective treatments, better engaging the immune system and improving treatment outcomes.
“An exceptional physician-scientist, Dr. Byers is focused on both taking care of her patients and also on understanding the disease at a deeper level, which can lead to a variety of new advances,” said nominator James P. Allison, Ph.D. (Nobel Laureate, NAM, NAS), Regental Professor and Chair of Immunology, and Director of the James P. Allison Institute at MD Anderson. “By conducting quality science, she has made important discoveries and identified key vulnerabilities for small cell lung cancer that have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. I am proud to see Dr. Byers honored for her commitment to meaningful advances for patients with cancer.”
Dr. Byers is one of five Texas-based researchers receiving the TAMEST 2025 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards. Recipients are chosen for their individual contributions addressing the essential role that science and technology play in society, and whose work meets the highest standards of exemplary professional performance, creativity and resourcefulness.
Dr. Byers will be recognized at the 2025 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, and will give a presentation on her research on Thursday morning, February 6, at the TAMEST 2025 Annual Conference: Transformational Breakthroughs in Irving, Texas, at the Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas.
The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards annually recognize rising star Texas researchers who are addressing the essential role that science and technology play in society, and whose work meets the highest standards of exemplary professional performance, creativity and resourcefulness.
Thanks to a $1.15 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation in 2022, the O’Donnell Awards have expanded to include an additional science award. The awards now recognize recipients in the categories of Medicine, Engineering, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Technology Innovation. (Previously, the TAMEST O’Donnell Awards rotated its science award between physical and biological sciences every year.)
The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards are made possible by the O’Donnell Awards Endowment, established in 2005 through the generous support of several individuals and organizations. View a full list of supporters here.
TAMEST was co-founded in 2004 by the Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison and Nobel Laureates Michael S. Brown, M.D., and Richard E. Smalley, Ph.D. With more than 345 members, eight Nobel Laureates and 23 member institutions, TAMEST is composed of the Texas-based members of the three National Academies (National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences) and other honorific organizations. We bring together the state’s brightest minds in medicine, engineering, science and technology to foster collaboration, and to advance research, innovation and business in Texas.
TAMEST’s unique interdisciplinary model has become an effective recruitment tool for top research and development centers across Texas. Since our founding, more than 300 TAMEST members have been inducted into the National Academies or relocated to Texas.