Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA

Research

Benjamin Cravatt receives the 2024 Heinrich Wieland Prize for his groundbreaking contributions to the development and application of methods for the functional annotation of enzymes. He devised activity-based protein profiling (ABPP), a chemical proteomic strategy, which uses small-molecule probes to measure the activity of many enzymes in parallel directly in native biological systems. ABPP is now widely applied in the discovery and characterization of enzymes and small-molecule enzyme inhibitors in vitro, in cells, and in vivo, across the entire proteome. With ABPP, Benjamin Cravatt discovered selective and efficacious inhibitors of enzymes that regulate endocannabinoid signalling in the brain. His research revealed central roles for endocannabinoid pathways in pain, inflammation, and neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. More recently, Benjamin Cravatt extended the ABPP technology to non-enzymatic proteins. With this, it is now possible to map interactions for any small-molecule directly and globally across the proteome and to discover chemical probes for historically undruggable proteins. Benjamin Cravatt’s transforming technologies have enabled the discovery of fundamental regulatory pathways in human physiology and disease and revolutionized how drug discovery is done today. The chemistry platforms and probes developed in Benjamin Cravatt’s laboratory have served as the foundation for several drug candidates currently investigated in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer and neurological disorders.

Academic Career

Benjamin Cravatt studied biological sciences and history at Stanford University, USA. After receiving his PhD in macromolecular and cellular structure and chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA, in 1996, he joined the faculty at The Scripps Research Institute as assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and since 2004, he is full professor and the Norton B. Gilula Chair in Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry and Cancer Research, the Jeremy Knowles Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the R35 Outstanding Investigator Award of the National Cancer Institute. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, USA.