J. Wade Harper

Dr. Harper is the Chair of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. His work focuses organelle quality control by the ubiquitin system and autophagy. His recent work has led to the discovery of a phosphorylation-driven feed-forward ubiquitylation pathway controlling PARKIN-dependent mitophagy, and a molecular understanding of the pathways controlling selective autophagy of a variety of organelles. Dr. Harper has employed interaction proteomics to define interactions and complexes for more than 17,000 human proteins in the context of the BioPlex Project, providing numerous complexes linked to biological pathways. Awards include the Javits Neuroscience award, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and election to the National Academy of Sciences.