Juan S. Bonifacino

Juan S. Bonifacino is an Argentinian-American cell biologist and biochemist. He is an NIH Distinguished Investigator and chief of the Section on Intracellular Protein Trafficking at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Career

Bonifacino was a predoctoral fellow of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina from 1978 to 1982. He joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1982 as a postdoctoral fellow at NICHD, where he worked with Maria Dufau. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research with Richard Klausner at the National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases and NICHD.

At NICHD, Bonifacino was a visiting associate in the Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch from 1986 to 1991. From 1991 to 1997, he was a visiting scientist and chief of the Unit on Intracellular Protein Trafficking.

He was chief of the Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch from 1997 to 2007 and headed the Cell Biology and Metabolism Program from 2007 to 2015. 2015 – IAS Distinguished Lecture, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 2015 – Raíces Award for International Cooperation in Science, Ministry of Science of Argentina 2018 – Elected fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology 2018 – John Hughlings Jackson Lecture, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University 2019 – NIH Director’s Award 2019 – Peter Maloney Lecture, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 2022 – Keith Porter Lecture Award, American Society for Cell Biology 2023 – Oscar Orías Lecture 2024 – Named Distinguished Visitor to the National University of Córdoba, Argentina 2025 – Andrew Somlyo Honorary Lecture, Pennsylvania Muscle Institute, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 2025 – Van Deenen Medal Award, Institute of Biomembranes, Utrecht University 2025 – Joseph C. Calandra Lecture, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 2025 – Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2026 – Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences