JACOB HESKEL GABBAY AWARD IN BIOTECHNOLOGYAND MEDICINE

PRESENTATION CEREMONY

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2015

WALTHAM, MASS.

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

18th Annual

JACOB HESKEL GABBAY AWARD IN BIOTECHNOLOGYAND MEDICINE

Early in 1998, the trustees of the Jacob and Louise Gabbay Foundation decided to establish a major new award in basic and applied biomedical sciences. The foundation felt that existing scientific awards tended to honor people who were already well-recognized or to focus on work that had its primary impact in traditional basic research fields. Yet the history of science suggests that most scientific revolu-tions are sparked by advances in practical areas such as instrumentation and techniques or through entrepreneurial endeavors. The foundation therefore created the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine to recognize, as early as possible in their careers, scientists in academia, medicine or industry whose work had both outstanding scientific content and significant practical consequences in the biomedical sciences.

Because of their long association with Brandeis University, the trustees of the foundation asked the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center at Brandeis to administer the award.

The award, given annually, consists of a $15,000 cash prize (to be shared in the case of multiple winners) and a medallion. The honorees travel to Brandeis University each fall to present lectures on their work and attend a dinner at which the formal commendation takes place. This year, a committee of distinguished scien-tists selected Stephen Quake of Stanford Univer-sity, School of Medicine. He was chosen in recognition of his contributions to both the basic science of microfluidics and its applications to biomedical research.

The Jacob and Louise Gabbay Foundation was founded by its namesakes in 1969. The late Jacob Gabbay, a physician, moved his family from Baghdad to the United States in 1952, maintaining a medical practice in New York City until 1982. The foundation, originally intended to help students of Iraqi descent pursue higher education in Israel, has subse-quently funded computer education for Israeli high schoolers and various medical projects. Louise Gabbay established the Gabbay Award, the foundation’s first American endeavor, in honor of her husband, who passed away in 1995.

PRESIDING

Dagmar RingeProfessor of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center

WELCOME

Irving Epstein Henry F. Fischbach Professor of Chemistry, Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

GUEST SPEAKER

Cynthia BamdadFounder, Chief Scientific Officer and Director, Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation

PRESENTATION CEREMONY

PRESENTATION OF MEDALLIONS AND AWARDS

Dagmar Ringe

RESPONSE

Stephen Quake

Stephen Quake Stephen Quake earned a BS in physics and an MS in mathematics from Stanford University in 1991, after which he earned a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University (1994) as a Marshall Scholar. He then returned to Stanford University, where he spent two years as a postdoc in Steven Chu’s group.

Quake joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology in 1996, where he rose through the ranks and was ultimately appointed the Thomas and Doris Everhart Professor of Applied Physics and Physics. At Caltech, Quake received “Career” and “First” awards from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health and was named a Packard Fellow.

These awards supported a research program that began with single molecule biophysics and soon expanded to include the inventions of single molecule sequencing and microfluidic large-scale integration, and their applications to biology and human health.

2015 WINNER

He moved back to Stanford University in 2005 to help launch a new department in bioengineering, where he is now the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Quake’s contributions to the development of new biotechnology at the interface between physics and biology have been widely recognized. Honors include the Human Frontier Science Program’s Nakasone Prize, the Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics, the American Society for Microbiology’s Promega Biotechnology Research Award, the Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing Pioneer of Miniaturization Award, and the National Institutes of Health’s Director’s Pioneer Award. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Physical Society.

Cynthia BamdadCynthia Bamdad founded Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation in 1999 and serves as its chief scientific officer. She invented the first electronic DNA chip and the first universal protein chip. Intellectual property surrounding these inventions and extensions thereof, also developed by Bamdad, formed the cornerstone of a California startup company, which was sold within two years to Motorola for $300 million.

Bamdad is the sole or co-inventor of more than 100 patent applications in the United States and foreign jurisdictions for novel technologies, therapeutics and diagnostics. She is a recognized leader in the field of nanotechnology, having invented the first method to form biochip surfaces on nanoparticles and methods to use those particles in biomedical testing and drug discovery. She served as a director at Pharmacyclics Inc. from October 2008 to December 9, 2009.

Bamdad holds a BS in physics from Northeastern Uni-versity and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard University.

2015 Guest Speaker

2000 For his leadership in genome sequencing

J. Craig VenterFounder and Chief Scientific OfficerCelera Genomics CorporationRockville, Md.

2001 For his pioneering achievements in miniaturization of fundamental biochemical experiments

J. Michael RamseyChemical and Analytical Sciences DivisionOak Ridge National LaboratoryOak Ridge, Tenn.

2002 Dr. Rastetter for his pioneering contributions in the development of antibody-based drugs; Dr. Slamon for his role in the development of the HER-2 immunother-apy against certain types of breast cancer, a pioneering

PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE JACOB HESKEL GABBAY AWARD IN BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE

contribution to medicine; and Dr. Winter for his pioneering role in the development of humanized monoclonal antibodies, and for the founding of the company Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) in the United Kingdom

William H. Rastetter, PhDChairman, and Chief Executive OfficerIDEC Pharmaceuticals Corp.San Diego, Calif.

Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhDExecutive. Vice Chair for Research and Professor of MedicineUCLA School of MedicineLos Angeles, Calif.

Gregory P. Winter, CBE, FRSJoint Head of Division of Protein & Nucleic Acid ChemistryMRC Laboratory of Molecular BiologyCambridge, England

2003For their development of yeast two-hybrid and yeast mating interaction traps

Roger BrentPresident and Research DirectorThe Molecular Sciences InstituteBerkeley, Calif.

Stanley FieldsHoward Hughes Medical InstituteDepartment of Genome Sciences and MedicineUniversity of WashingtonSeattle, Wash.

2004For his many contributions to the biotechnology industry

George M. WhitesidesWoodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University ProfessorHarvard University Cambridge, Mass.

2005For their roles in the development and use of molecular beacons as a diagnostic tool in vivo, and in the detection of RNA in living cells

Fred R. KramerProfessor of Microbiology and Molecular GeneticsNew Jersey Medical School; and Member, Public Health Research InstituteNewark, N.J.

Sanjay TyagiProfessor, Department of Medicine,New Jersey Medical School; and Member, Public Health Research InstituteNewark, N.J.

2006For their role in the development of contrast agents used in cardiodiagnostic procedures

Dr. Alan DavisonProfessor Emeritus of ChemistryMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridge, Mass.

Dr. Alun Gareth JonesProfessor of RadiologyHarvard Medical School & Brigham and Women’s HospitalBoston, Mass.

2007For pioneering the technology of gene targeting in mouse embryo-derived stem (ES) cells that allows scien-tists to create mice with mutations in any desired gene by choosing which gene to mutate and how to mutate it

Dr. Mario CapecchiHoward Hughes Medical InstituteProfessor of Human GeneticsUniversity of Utah, School of MedicineSalt Lake City, Utah

2008For his seminal basic-science discoveries, including regulated protein turnover in bacteria and mito-chondria and, most importantly, the development of proteasome inhibitors as a treatment for cancer

Dr. Alfred GoldbergProfessor of Cell BiologyHarvard Medical SchoolBoston, Mass.

2009For their significant contributions in the field of assisted human reproduction

Dr. Alan H. HandysideVisiting ProfessorUniversity of Leeds, and Director of the London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics CentreLondon, England

Dr. Ann A. KiesslingAssociate ProfessorHarvard Medical School, and Director of the Bedford Stem Cell Research FoundationBedford, Mass.

Dr. Gianpiero D. PalermoProfessorNew York Presbyterian Hospital,Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and Director of Assisted Fertilization and Andrology at the Center for Reproductive Medicine and InfertilityNew York, N.Y.

2010For her work on aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer

Dr. Angela Hartley BrodieProfessor of PharmacologyUniversity of MarylandMarlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer CenterBaltimore, Md.

2011For his work on the immune responses by T cells, a type of lymphocyte

James P. AllisonHoward Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Chair of the Immunology ProgramMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer CenterNew York, N.Y.

2012For their work in identifying the negative cellular effects of bisphenol in plastics, and for alerting the commercial sector in order to prevent its further use

Patricia HuntProfessor, School of Molecular BiosciencesWashington State University Pullman Wash.

Carlos SonnenscheinProfessor, Department of Anatomy and Cellular BiologyTufts University School of MedicineBoston, Mass.

Ana M. SotoProfessor, Department of Anatomy and Cellular BiologyTufts University School of MedicineBoston, Mass.

2013For their contributions to the discovery and applications of a method called optogenetics

Edward BoydenAssociate Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive SciencesMIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute

Karl DeisserothD.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesStanford University

Gero MiesenböckWaynflete Professor of Physiology and Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour University of Oxford

2014For their work on the CRISPR/cas system

Feng ZhangW. M. Keck Career Development Professor of Biomedical EngineeringMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Jennifer DoudnaProfessor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of California, Berkeley

Emmanuelle Charpentier ProfessorHannover Medical SchoolHead of Regulation in Infection BiologyHelmholtz Center for Infection Research

JACOB HESKEL GABBAY AWARD IN BIOTECHNOLOGYAND MEDICINE

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