Alfred L. Goldberg PhD

Dr. Goldberg, a Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, has been on the faculty of that institution for nearly his entire academic career. His important discoveries have concerned the biochemical mechanisms and physiological regulation of protein breakdown in cells and the importance of this process in human disease. His laboratory first demonstrated the non-lysosomal ATP-dependent pathway for protein breakdown, now termed the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. They first demonstrated the involvement of the 20S and 26S proteasomes in this process and discovered the ATP-dependent proteases responsible for protein degradation in bacteria and mitochondria. Also of wide impact have been Dr. Goldberg’s studies first showing that the ubiquitin proteasome pathway is critical in the clearance of misfolded proteins and in muscle atrophy seen in many disease states as well as in antigen presentation to the immune system.