Michael Karin

Michael Karin (Hebrew: מיכאל קרין; born 1951, Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-American molecular biologist and pharmacologist. He is Director of the Center for Metabolic and Liver Diseases at Sanford Burnham Prebys. He was previously Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology, Ben and Wanda Hildyard Chair for Mitochondrial and Metabolic Diseases, and American Cancer Society Research Professor at the University of California, San Diego, where he served from 1986 until his retirement.

Early life and education Karin was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1951. He went to high school with fellow NAS member Adi Shamir. He graduated magna cum laude in 1975 from Tel Aviv University in biology. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from University of California, Los Angeles in 1979, where he studied the genetic regulation of metallothioneins. He then completed postdoctoral fellowships with Beatrice Mintz at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, and subsequently with John Baxter at the University of California, San Francisco.

Career In 1982, Karin was hired as Assistant Professor of Microbiology at the University of Southern California. In 1986, he moved to the University of California, San Diego. 2011 – Harvey Prize in Human Health 2013 – William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology, Cancer Research Institute 2017 – Elected Fellow of the AACR Academy 2020 – AACR G.H.A. Clowes Award for Outstanding Basic Cancer Research