J. Wade Harper, PhD, is the Bert and Natalie Vallee Professor of Molecular Pathology and the Chairman of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, and is also the Co-Director of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Program in Cancer Cell Biology. His early work focused on the functions, mechanisms and targets of two major regulatory systems involved in cell cycle control and DNA repair: cyclin-dependent kinases and cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases. His recent work has focused on understanding how the ubiquitin and autophagy pathways re-sculpt the proteome and organelles in response to nutrient signals and organelle damage, including a detailed analysis of mechanism underlying mitophagy, ER-phagy and ribophagy. His work has also contributed to large-scale analysis of the human protein-protein interactions, providing an overview of the protein networks that make up the human interactome.

His awards include the Vallee Visiting Professorship, the Javits Neuroscience award from NIH, and election to the American Society of Arts and Sciences.