Wafik S El-Deiry, M.D., PhD, is a Professor of Medicine, Genetics, and Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he is also a Co-Program Leader of Radiation Biology at the Abramson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. El-Deiry has received many honors and awards and is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a Highly Cited Researcher in Molecular Biology and Genetics. He serves as Editor-in- Chief of the peer-reviewed medical journal Cancer Biology and Therapy and has been an Active Member of the American Association of Cancer Research’s Science Policy and Legislative Affairs Committee. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1981, and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Miami in Florida in 1987, and completed medical residency and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. Dr El-Deiry has published more than 200 scientific manuscripts and reviews and has edited several books on cancer.  He serves on numerous national science review panels, is a popular invited speaker, and has trained and mentored several dozen post-doctoral scientists and graduate students.  As a practicing physician he specializes in oncology and as a researcher he seeks new treatments to fight aggressive resistant cancers.  Dr. El-Deiry’s lab recently described the caspase-targeting ubiquitin E3 ligase activity of proteins CARP1 and CARP2, and, using pioneering cell imaging techniques, identified small molecules that recapitulate p53 function in tumor cells.

Arthur L Haas, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, is a pioneer in the biochemistry and enzymology of ubiquitin pathway enzymes. He earned a PhD degree in Biochemistry from Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, and received his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Irwin Rose, one of three scientists awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery and elaboration of the ubiquitin pathway.  Dr Haas published the first biochemical kinetics studies of the three enzymes (E1, E2, and E3) responsible for attaching ubiquitin to its target protein, and has long been regarded as a pioneer in the field of ubiquitin biochemistry. Dr Haas’ lab recently identified a second constitutive cell system that is parallel but distinct from ubiquitin in which the 15 kDa interferon-like protein ISG15/UCRP is conjugated to a smaller subset of intracellular targets. ISG15 is a member of a small group of function-specific ubiquitin-like proteins that includes SUMO-1 and Nedd8. The conjugation of ISG15 to intracellular targets functions to regulate protein-protein interactions, in one instance acting in trans to mediate association of the target with intermediate filament

Mark Hochstrasser, PhD, Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Yale University, received a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco and his postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the laboratory of Dr Alex Varshavsky, one of the pioneers in the field of ubiquitin research, and the developer of the “N-end rule” of protein degradation in cells. He is one of several outstanding young scientists who trained with Prof. Varshavsky and are now leaders in today’s rapidly growing ubiquitin field.   Dr Hochstrasser is well known as an expert in (1) protein turnover occurring in cells via the ubiquitin-proteasome system; and (2) the function and dynamics of protein modification by other proteins. Using yeast genetics and cellular biology/biochemistry tools, he has contributed much toward current knowledge of protein turnover and modification by ubiquitin and “ubiquitin-like proteins”, describing, for example, the SUMO proteases of yeast (Ulp1,2).  Dr Hochstrasser is the author of numerous articles, including seminal research papers as well as extensive reviews of the field, and his views on current developments in ubiquitin related research appear regularly as commentaries in Nature and Science.

Keith D Wilkinson, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, and director of Emory's Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences is a world renowned biochemist and enzymologist.  He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, and, like Dr Haas, trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in the laboratory of 2004 Nobel Laureate Dr. Irwin Rose at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia. Dr. Wilkinson was invited as an honorary guest to the Nobel ceremonies held in Stockholm, Sweden on December 10, 2004. His Nobel essay, entitled "Ubiquitin: A Nobel Protein," appears in the December 17 issue of the journal Cell. It traces the history of the groundbreaking research on ubiquitin over the past 25 years.  Dr Wilkinson’s own contributiuons to the ubiquitin field are many and span several decades.  He discovered UCHL1, the first ubiquitin isopeptidase to be described, and showed that it was a target of therapeutic interest.  He was, thus, one of the first to recognize the importance of this class of enzyme to drug discovery.  Dr. Wilkinson’s laboratory has been a pioneer in the development of assays for isopeptidases that work on the ubiquitin family of proteins. 

Joseph Weinstock, PhD, Consultant in Medicinal Chemistry.  Dr. Weinstock pursued a distinguished and highly productive career as a director of medicinal chemistry at the Pharmaceutical company SmithKline & French (later SmithKline Beecham, and now GlaxoSmithKline) Pharmaceuticals.  He directed a medicinal chemistry group that was responsible for the synthesis of several compounds that have become marketed ethical pharmaceuticals, including the antihypertensive agent Dyazide, the angiotensin II antagonist Tevetan, and the renal vasodilator Fenoldopam. He also played a key role in chemistry of additional compounds that were studied  in the clinic for diuretic, hypotensive, and anti-inflammatory activity, and made substantial contributions to the chemistry of benzazepines, vulpinic acids, gold complexes, endothelin antagonists, NK3 antagonists, antibiotics, heterocycles, and combinatorial and array chemistry.  In addition to his synthetic contributions, Dr Weinstock was a leader and/or integral member of many preclinical development teams in the SmithKline organization, and is the author of >140 publications and 110 issued U.S.patents.