The 2017 ACS Chemical Biology Award Symposium will feature keynote speaker Professor Benjamin F. Cravatt, distinguished recipient of the 2017 ACS Chemical Biology Lectureship Award. The ACS Chemical Biology Award is presented annually to honor an individual whose contributions have had a major impact on scientific research in the area of Chemical Biology. Past winners include Alanna Schepartz (2010), […]
The 2017 ACS Chemical Biology Award Symposium will feature keynote speaker Professor Benjamin F. Cravatt, distinguished recipient of the 2017 ACS Chemical Biology Lectureship Award. The ACS Chemical Biology Award is presented annually to honor an individual whose contributions have had a major impact on scientific research in the area of Chemical Biology. Past winners include Alanna Schepartz (2010), Stuart Schreiber (2011), Carolyn Bertozzi (2012), Wilfred van der Donk (2013), Peter Dervan (2014), Kevan Shokat (2015), and Peter G. Schultz (2016).
Professor Cravatt’s selection as the recipient of the 2017 Award recognizes his groundbreaking development of activity-based protein profiling technology, which enables the functional annotation of enzymes using active site-directed chemical probes.
Through post-genomic profiling of the functional state of enzymes in complex proteomes, Professor Cravatt has identified key mammalian enzymes involved in regulation of lipid signaling pathways in cancer. Utilizing his activity-based profiling technology in conjunction with advanced mass spectrometry methods, Professor Cravatt has generated global-scale maps of lipid-binding proteins, amino acid reactivities, and novel functional residues within the proteome. In addition to advancing our knowledge of biology, these methods have been used to identify new therapeutic targets and new leads.
Professor Cravatt’s technologies have been adopted by academic and industrial labs worldwide for broad-scale functional characterization of enzymes within biological systems, thus having far-reaching implications for our understanding of mammalian physiology and disease.
I’m excited to present the 2017 ACS Chemical Biology Award to Professor Cravatt and look forward to hearing his, and other invited speakers’, talks during the 2017 Award Symposium on April 4, from 2 to 5 pm, at the Moscone Center, Room 131. I hope you can join us.
ACS Chemical Biology Lectureship Awardee: Benjamin F. Cravatt
Benjamin F. Cravatt is a Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). His research group is interested in understanding the roles that enzymes play in physiological and pathological processes, especially as pertains to the nervous system and cancer. Professor Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in the Biological Sciences and a B.A. in History. He then received a Ph.D. from TSRI in 1996. Professor Cravatt joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997. Professor Cravatt is a co-founder and scientific advisor of rActivx Biosciences, Abide Therapeutics, and Vividion Therapeutics. His honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the Protein Society Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award, the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, the ASBMB Merck Award, and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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