For his work on identifying disease-causing proteins and drugs targeting those proteins, Benjamin Cravatt, PhD, the Norton B. Gilula Chair in Biology and Chemistry, is the 2024 recipient of the Heinrich Wieland Prize. This award, which shares its name with the 1927 Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry, honors scientists who have advanced research related to biologically active molecules and systems. The Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation endowed the prize with 250,000 euros.

“Benjamin Cravatt’s work demonstrates what can be achieved when one successfully builds bridges between disciplines and in this way spans the arc from basic research to clinical application,” says Christoph Boehringer, the board chairman of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation.

Using concepts from biology and chemistry, Cravatt researches the role of proteins in disease development, with an overarching goal of identifying new approaches to treatment. Notably, he pioneered a technique that enables measuring the activity and drug interactions of proteins on a global scale—be it in a cell or an entire organism. Known as activity-based protein profiling, the method has facilitated the development of new drug candidates that are now in clinical trials to treat a range of conditions, from different forms of cancer to neurological disorders.

For his scientific achievements, Cravatt has received many prestigious honors, including the AACR Award for Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, the ASBMB Merck Award, the Bristol Myers Squibb Award for Enzyme Chemistry, the Cope Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Prize in Biological Chemistry, the R35 Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute, the Jeremy Knowles Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Searle Scholar Award and the Wolf Prize in Chemistry. He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

Cravatt will give a lecture titled, “Activity-based proteomics—protein and ligand discovery on a global scale” when he is honored at an award ceremony and symposium on October 24, 2024, at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Germany.