Edward Chouchani, Associate Professor of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Associate Professor of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School

Bodossaki Distinguished Young Scientist Awards 2023

Life Sciences:Biomedical Sciences

«It is a tremendous honor to receive the Bodossaki Distinguished Young Scientist Award, not least because of the brilliant Greek scientists with whom I now share this distinction. I am extremely grateful to Bodossaki Foundation for their recognition of the importance of scientific discovery.»

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Edward Chouchani is Associate Professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. His lab applies mass spectrometry and biochemical approaches to understand how metabolites regulate cellular function in pre-clinical models of health and disease. The goal of his lab is to leverage these newfound mechanisms to develop new therapies for metabolic, inflammatory, and metastatic diseases.

Edward was born April 21, 1985. His father is Greek, and immigrated to Canada where Edward was born. Edward grew up around the world, spending time in Greece, Cuba, and Thailand during his childhood and adolescence. He received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge and MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit. He was awarded a Gates Scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for his Ph.D studies, and his graduate work resulted in the discovery of a mechanism controlling damage that occurs in pathologies of heart attack and stroke.

Edward then conducted postdoctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he developed new technologies to understand how metabolism controls obesity and diabetes. In 2017 he became an Assistant Professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on developing technologies to understand how metabolites regulate physiological processes. Since starting his lab, his work has culminated in describing new general principles and conserved mechanisms through which metabolites
regulate physiology. Based on these discoveries, he has published over 60 papers in leading journals, given over 100 invited lectures, and co-founded three biotechnology companies raising financing of over $100M. For his research Accomplishments, Edward has won numerous awards including the Pew Scholarship, the Heidi Helmholtz Diabetes Award, the Biochemical Society Early Career Investigator Award, the Armen H. Tashjian Award for Excellence in Endocrine Research, the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award, and The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise.