Benjamin F. Cravatt III | |
---|---|
Born | (1970-04-13) April 13, 1970 |
Education | Stanford University B.S. and B.A. (1992) The Scripps Research Institute Ph.D. (1996) |
Known for | Proteomics |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Chemical Biology |
Institutions | The Scripps Research Institute Vividion Therapeutics ActivX Biosciences Abide Therapeutics |
Doctoral advisors | |
Benjamin Franklin Cravatt III is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.[1] Considered a co-inventor of activity-based proteomics and a substantial contributor to research on the endocannabinoid system, he is a prominent figure in the field of chemical biology. Cravatt was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2014,[1] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.[2] He is Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology, a Cope Scholar, and a Searle Scholar.
His father was a dentist and his mother a dental hygienist, both of whom instilled in Cravatt an interest in biology as a child.[1]
Ben Cravatt is left handed.
Cravatt entered Stanford University in 1988, graduating in 1992 with a BS in the Biological Sciences and a BA in History.[1][3] He then received a PhD in Macromolecular and Cellular Structure and Chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute in 1996,[1] where he worked under the joint supervision of Dale L. Boger and Richard Lerner.
His early contributions to the cannabinoid field include identification and characterization of the endocannabinoid-terminating enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH),[1] as well as the isolation of the novel soporific compound oleamide from cerebrospinal fluid.[4][5]
Cravatt and colleagues pioneered the activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) chemical proteomic technology, which they used in 2010 to elucidate certain global proteomic features of cysteine proteases.[1] Cravatt's lab has since combined the ABPP technology with metabolomics.[1]
Among the awards that Cravatt has received are the TR100 Award in 2002, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry in 2004, the ASBMB-Merck Award in 2014 and the Sato Memorial Award in 2015.[1] Cravatt also received an NCI MERIT grant in 2009.[1] In 2022 he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry.[6]
Cravatt is a co-founder of Vividion Therapeutics, Abide Therapeutics and ActivX Biosciences. He formerly served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Chemical Science.[citation needed]
Cravatt, Benjamin F.; professor and chair, department of chemical physiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif.