Therapeutic Targeting of the Proteasome in Disease

In honor of Julian Adams, Ph.D., Kenneth C. Anderson M.D., Alfred L. Goldberg, Ph.D. , and Paul G. Richardson, M.D. for their discovery, preclinical and clinical development of Bortezomib (Velcade) to FDA approval and front line therapy for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma.

Julian Adams

Julian Adams | 2012 Recipient

For the discovery, preclinical and clinical development of  bortezomib to FDA approval and front line therapy for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma.

Julian Adams, PhD is President of Research and Development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Adams is responsible for the full spectrum of Infinity’s drug discovery, preclinical, and clinical development strategy, and regulatory affairs activities. Prior to joining Infinity in 2003, he was the Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery and Development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. In this capacity he had global responsibility for multiple drug discovery programs, including the successful discovery and development of Velcade® (bortezomib), a proteasome inhibitor for cancer therapy. He joined Millennium through its acquisition of LeukoSite in 1999 where he was Senior Vice President of Research and Development. Adams joined LeukoSite as a result of its acquisition of ProScript, Inc., where he had served as a member of the founding management team, Executive Vice President of Research and Development, and a member of the Board of Directors. Earlier in his career, Adams served in various positions, including Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he successfully discovered the drug Viramune® (nevirapine) for HIV. Also, from 1982–
1987, he was a medicinal chemist at Merck.

Adams has received many awards, including the 2001 Ribbon of Hope Award for Velcade® from the International Myeloma Foundation. He is an inventor of more than 40 patents and has authored over 100 papers and book chapters in peer reviewed journals. He is the editor of Proteasome Inhibition in Cancer Therapy, published in July 2004.

Adams received his BS from McGill University and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of synthetic organic chemistry.

Opening Remarks

Jeffrey S. Flier, MD

Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Harvard University

Joan S. Brugge, PhD

Louise Foote Pfeiffer Professor of Cell Biology and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School

Alfred L. Goldberg, PhD

Professor of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School Functions of the Proteasome: From Protein Degradation to Drug Development

Julian Adams, PhD

President, Research and Development, Infinity Pharmaceuticals The Discovery and Development of Bortezomib

Kenneth C. Anderson, MD

Kraft Family Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Director of the LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Bench to Bedside Translation of Proteasome Inhibitor Therapy in Multiple Myeloma

Paul G. Richardson, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Clinical Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute The Clinical Development of Bortezomib in Multiple Myeloma: from Single Agent to Combinations and Beyond

Sign up to receive updates

Sign up to receive updates

Past Symposia

For questions about the prize, please contact us.

Contact Us
I am thankful to the Warren Alpert Foundation and to the prize selection committee for their consideration, and I look forward to further serving the CRISPR community.
- Rodolphe Barrangou

Rodolphe Barrangou | 2016 Recipient

Rodolphe Barrangou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University, a NC State University Scholar, and the Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Scholar in Probiotics Research. Dr. Barrangou is also an associate member of the Microbiology graduate program, the Biotechnology graduate program, the Functional Genomics graduate program, and the Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Barrangou is also an adjunct member of the Food Science Department at the Pennsylvania State University.

His CRISPR laboratory focuses on the evolution and functions of CRISPR-Cas systems, and their use for bacterial genotyping, building prokaryotic immunity, and Cas9-mediated genome editing in lactic acid bacteria used in food manufacturing.

Dr. Barrangou earned a BS in Biological Sciences from the Rene Descartes University in Paris, France; a MS in Biological Engineering from the University of Technology in Compiegne, France; a MS in Food Science from NC State University; a PhD in Genomics from NC State University; and a MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Barrangou and colleagues at DuPont established the biological role of CRISPR-Cas systems in adaptive immunity in bacteria, and used CRISPR-based technologies for bacterial genotyping of industrial cultures, and for the vaccination of dairy cultures against bacteriophages. After nine years in R&D and M&A at Danisco and DuPont, he joined the faculty at NC State University in 2013.

Dr. Barrangou is the recipient of the 2014 NC State Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award, and of the 2015 NC State Faculty Scholars Award. He has been on the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list in 2014 and 2015. Dr. Barrangou is on the board of directors of Caribou Biosciences, a co-founder and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Intellia Therapeutics, and a founding investor of Locus Biosciences.

Dr. Barrangou has published numerous articles on CRISPR-Cas systems and their use since 2005, including establishing their role as bacterial immune systems, and exploiting them for industrial applications. Following the initial work unraveling the biological function of CRISPR arrays and cas genes, subsequent studies and collaborative efforts identified PAMs as critical sequences for phage DNA targeting, showed that Cas9 is an endonuclease which can cleave plasmid and phage DNA, and provided the first proof of concept that CRISPR can be reprogrammed and transferred heterologously. Dr. Barrangou also established and co-hosted five international CRISPR meetings, and edited the first book on CRISPR-Cas systems.

 View Past Recipients