UCSF professor wins Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science

Mar 29 2015

Peter Walter was chosen as winner of the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for his pioneering work on how proteins are transported between cellular compartments and for unraveling the components of a regulatory mechanism that cells use to handle stress tied to the aggregation of misshapen proteins. Dr. Walter is a professor of biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. His research lays the groundwork for treating a range of human diseases related to defective protein folding and transport.

Over nearly four decades, Dr. Walter's work in cell biology has led to a fundamental understanding of important elements of the process by which proteins are ferried from their place of manufacture in cells to the final destinations where they function. During the 1980s, Dr. Walter discovered a molecular apparatus in cells called the signal recognition particle, which facilitates the transport of newly minted proteins across a cellular compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum by homing in on address tags on the proteins. Dr. Walter's steadfast investigations into the structure, versatility, and conservation of the apparatus across different forms of life have afforded crucial insights into factors that govern cellular compartmentalization and function. The significance of these findings is borne out by the large number of human diseases tied to disrupted protein transport in cells; treating such diseases requires a basic understanding of the underlying cellular processes that have gone awry.

In the mid-1990s, Dr. Walter added to our growing appreciation of how cells handle stress tied to the buildup of improperly folded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum. Working with yeast as a model organism, Dr. Walter and Kyoto University molecular biologist Kazutoshi Mori simultaneously identified key elements of the signaling mechanism underlying the "unfolded protein response." Dr. Walter's findings on the unfolded protein response bear implications for the treatment of human diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, cystic fibrosis, and multiple myeloma.

Peter Walter moved from his native Berlin to the United States in 1976 and earned a PhD in 1981 under the tutelage of Rockefeller University cell biologist and Nobel Prize winner Gunter Blobel. He accepted a faculty position at the University of California, San Francisco, in 1983. The seminal nature of Dr. Walter's accomplishments is evidenced by his many honors. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His work has earned him the 2009 Gairdner International Award, the 2014 Shaw Prize, and the 2014 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.

SOURCE The Vilcek Foundation