Michele Pagano (biochemist)


Michele Pagano is an Italian-American biochemist and cancer biologist best known for his work on cell cycle control and the ubiquitin-proteasome system. He is currently the chairman of the , and the at the New York University School of Medicine. He is also an . His laboratory has played a central role in elucidating the role of a family of enzymes, the cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases, in mediating the proteolysis of key cellular regulators. In particular, his work has uncovered the molecular mechanisms by which CRLs control cell cycle progression, signal transduction pathways, and the DNA damage response. His work has also elucidated how the dysregulation of CRLs contributes to malignant transformation and metastasis.

Education and Positions

Pagano earned his MD in 1990 from the University of Naples Federico II, where he first conducted basic research on the estrogen receptor. After completing his medical training, he first moved to the EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany, and then to Mitotix Inc., Cambridge, MA, where he carried out his postdoctoral studies under the mentorship of . As a postdoctoral fellow, Pagano first described the importance of cyclins and CDKs for DNA replication, and then the role of the ubiquitin system in controlling the cellular levels of CDK inhibitors. In 1996, upon completion of his postdoctoral studies, Pagano moved to the New York University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. He was appointed to the position of Associate Professor in 1999, tenured in 2003, and became Full-Professor in 2005. In 2015, he became the Chairman of the .

Honors and Service

Pagano was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2008. Since 1997, his laboratory has been funded uninterruptedly by the National Institute of Health. He was also the recipient of other grants and awards, including an NCI MERIT Award and an NIGMS in recognition of his achievements in cell and cancer biology. He serves on the Advisory Board of several pharmaceutical companies and foundations, and on editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals in the fields of molecular oncology, cell biology, and cell signaling. Pagano has published and has been issued . His laboratory has always been open to people from all parts of the world for training and collaborative efforts. Among the most notable visiting scientists are the Nobel laureate Avram Hershko, who spent seven summer sabbaticals in his laboratory and with whom Pagano has co-authored 10 papers, and Yosef Shiloh, known for his pioneering studies on ATM, who spent a sabbatical year in his lab.

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