Speaker

Gerald (Jerry) Crabtree is the David Korn Professor of Pathology at Stanford University. In 1993, together with Stuart Schreiber, he developed Chemical Inducers of Proximity (CIPs; FK1012 and related molecules) and used them to reconstruct and understand biological regulatory mechanisms, addressing Richard Feynman's famous dictum: “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” Using this new class of molecules, his laboratory, in collaboration with Schreiber's, reconstituted signaling pathways involving membrane receptors, kinases, exchange factors, transcription factors, proteasomal degradation pathways, and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms.

These studies laid the foundation for modern proximity-based therapeutics, including gain-of-function molecules known as Transcriptional/Circuitry-Inducing Proximities (TCIPs), which are designed to rewire cancer drivers to activate cell death (Gourisankar et al., Nature 2023; Sarott et al., Science 2024; Nix et al., Cell, in press). TCIPs and SCIPs operate through fractional target occupancy and may substantially expand the range of druggable proteins.

on as an EMBO Young Investigator (2005), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2013), EMBO Membership (2013), the Hooke Medal (2014), Fellowship of the National Academy of Medical Sciences UK (2017), Wellcome Trust Investigator and Discovery Awards (2017, 2024), the GlaxoSmithKline Award from the Biochemical Society (2018), and the IUBMB Jubilee Award Lecture (2025).

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