Dr. Goldberg is a Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, where he has been on the faculty for his entire academic career.  His important discoveries have concerned the biochemical mechanisms and physiological regulation of protein breakdown in cells, and the importance of this process in human disease.  His laboratory first discovered the non-lysosomal ATP-dependent system for protein breakdown, now termed the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. They first demonstrated the involvement of the 20S and 26S proteasomes in this process and discovered the ATP-dependent proteases responsible for protein degradation in bacteria.  Also of wide impact have been his studies showing that activation of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway is critical in muscle atrophy in many disease states as well as their elucidation of the key role of the proteasome in antigen presentation. Dr. Goldberg and colleagues first introduced the proteasome inhibitors now widely used as research tools, and he initiated the research effort that led to the development of the proteasome inhibitor, Velcade, now widely used in the treatment of certain cancers.

Dr. Goldberg earned his AB degree in biochemistry and his PhD in physiology in 1968 from Harvard University, after attending Harvard Medical School and Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar.  He has received the Novartis-Drew Award for Biochemical Science, Severo Ochoa Award (New York University), Knobil Prize (University of Texas Medical School), Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine (Brandeis University), and has been honored by many distinguished lectureships, including the Nobel Forum Lecture (Karolinska Institute), Fay Lecture (University of Massachusetts Medical School), da Vinci Lecture (University of Milan), Rothchild Lecture (Israeli Academy of Sciences), and Centennial Lecture (Biochemical Society). Dr. Goldberg has served on the advisory board of many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and is among the top 1% most cited authors in the life sciences.