American cell biologist
Paul Adrian Negulescu is an American–
Romanian
cell biologist . He is the Senior Vice President and Site Head of the
San Diego Research Center of American
pharmaceutical company
Vertex Pharmaceuticals . He received the 2022
Shaw Prize in Life science and medicine , together with
Michael J. Welsh , for their work that uncovered the
etiology of
cystic fibrosis and developed effective
medications .
[3]
Early life and education
Negulescu was born in
San Francisco to
first-generation immigrants from
Romania . His father was a
surgeon ,
[1] and his grandfather,
Constantin Vișoianu , was a former
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.
[4]
[5] He has a brother.
[1]
Thanks to his childhood experience, he initially wanted to graduate with
history from the
University of California, Berkeley . A third-year
physiology class taught by
Roger Y. Tsien had a great influence on Negulescu, who eventually graduated with a
dual degree in history and physiology in 1986. He then went on and studied
PhD in physiology under Terry Machen, completing it in 1990.
[1]
Career
Negulescu started his career as a
postdoctoral researcher at the
University of California, Berkeley and under Michael Cahalan at the
University of California, Irvine . He was planning to move to the
University of Connecticut when
Roger Y. Tsien asked him to join a
startup company he was forming called
Aurora Biosciences .
[1]
[6] Negulescu joined Aurora Biosciences in 1996 as one of the first employees.
[7] He became Senior Vice President of Discovery Biology in 1999. When
Vertex Pharmaceuticals acquired Aurora Biosciences in 2001,
[8] he was appointed Senior Vice President of Research.
[1] Negulescu has been leading the
San Diego Research Center of Vertex Pharmaceuticals since 2003.
[9]
Research
Negulescu's research focuses on the therapy of
cystic fibrosis . Cystic fibrosis can be caused by any of the thousands of identified
mutations in the
CFTR protein, an
ion channel that allows
chloride ions to pass through. These mutations have been classified into Class I to V, with Class III mutations causing defective channel gates in CFTR despite normal expression of the protein.
[10] Via
high-throughput screening , his team at
Vertex Pharmaceuticals discovered
ivacaftor , a
small-molecule
potentiator that increases the probability that mutated CFTR gates will open.
[11]
[12] Ivacaftor was approved by the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cystic fibrosis patients with one specific Class III mutation in 2012, and has since been approved for mutation classes as well.
[13] Of note, the expanded approval in 2017 was based solely on
in vitro data, due to the small number of patients carrying those rare mutations making
clinical trials impossible.
[14]
Negulescu also led the discovery of another cystic fibrosis drug,
lumacaftor , which is known as a "corrector" as it acts as a
chaperone to help the CFTR protein fold correctly.
[15] Thus, it can be used in patients with Class II mutations, which create
misfolded CFTR protein that cannot reaching the
cell surface .
[13] The most common Class II mutation is F508del.
[16] Again with high-throughput screening, Negulescu and his team found that lumacaftor can correct F508del-mutated CFTR protein.
[17] It was later found that the drug was not effective enough when administered on its own,
[18] but was so when administered together with ivacaftor.
[19] The FDA approved this drug combination in 2015.
[20] Further research led to the discovery of
tezacaftor and
elexacaftor , 2 other correctors of the CFTR protein.
[21] The triple combination
elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor was approved by the FDA in 2019.
[22]
Honors and awards
Personal life
Negulescu met his wife, Debbie, during his time at the
University of California, Irvine .
[1]
References
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
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Shaw Prize Foundation . Archived from
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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