Prof. Michael Karin University of California, San Diego, USA

Michael Karin received his BSc in biology in 1975 at Tel Aviv University and his PhD in molecular biology in 1979, University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Karin is currently a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology at the School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, where has been... read moreon the faculty since 1987. He was a cofounder of Signal Pharmaceutical (currently Celgene) and had served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Signal Research Division of Celgene. Dr. Karin has been an American Cancer Society Research Professor since 1999 and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences since 2005. He is a leading world authority on signal transduction pathways that regulate gene expression in response to extracellular stimuli, infection and stress. Key achievements include definition of cis elements that mediate gene induction by hormones, cytokines and stress, identification and characterization of the transcription factors that recognize these elements and the protein kinase cascades that regulate their activities. Much of Dr. Karin’s current activity is focused on understanding the link between inflammation, cancer and metabolic disease as well as on understanding the signaling mechanisms used by receptors involved in inflammation (TNF receptors) and innate immunity (TLR2 and NLRs). He has published over 300 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 25 different patents or pending patent applications. Recently, Dr Karin was ranked first worldwide by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) in a recent listing of most-cited molecular biology and genetic research papers published in prestigious journals.