Wade Harper

Wade Harper, PhD, is a seasoned cellular biologist whose work is focused on the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy in protein homeostasis.

Dr. Harper is the Bert and Natalie Vallee Professor of Molecular Pathology and Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, and co-Director of the Dana Farber-Harvard Cancer Center Cancer Cell Biology Program. His lab has used proteomic approaches to define the interaction networks of various protein families (deubiquitinating enzymes, F-box proteins) and signaling networks (autophagy, ERAD, CRLs, Parkin), as well as to define the ubiquitin-modified proteome. Dr. Harper joined the faculty in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School in 2003, arriving from Baylor College of Medicine. At Baylor, he was part of the faculty at the Department of Biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine as well as the Department of Cell Biology. His research has won awards including the American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Award, the Michael Debakey Award for Excellence in Research in both 1994 and 2000, and the Javits award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Harper received his doctorate in chemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology prior to post-doctoral studies in biological chemistry at Harvard Medical School.