Featured speakers
Each year, ASBMB’s program features outstanding scientists who are driving biochemistry and molecular biology forward and making future discoveries and applications possible. At the 2026 ASBMB Annual Meeting, you'll hear from leading researchers, innovators, pioneers and emerging scientists across all parts of the field. Learn about novel fundamental findings, translational opportunities, and the career journeys that will inspire current and future generations of researchers.
Keynote speaker
- Samuels Professor and department of biochemistry chair, University of Utah
While the HIV/AIDS epidemic remains a global crisis, fundamental biochemistry research has been central to creating a new tool for ending it. Forty million people live with HIV, with 1.3 million new infections and more than 600,000 deaths annually, and no effective vaccine is available. However, combining basic research on the HIV capsid and innovative drug development, Gilead Sciences has developed lenacapavir as a new first-in-class drug against a viral capsid that provides nearly complete protection against HIV transmission and can be administered just twice a year. Its recent regulatory approval is a result of nearly three decades of synergistic efforts from academia and industry. This presentation will describe the biochemistry, structure and function of the HIV capsid, and summarize the journey to lenacapavir and current emerging capsid research.
Plenary speakers
- Professor, Baylor College of Medicine; HHMI
- Professor, University of California, San Francisco
- Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Featured speakers
- Rutgers University
- Recipient of the 2026 Herbert Tabor Research Award
- Fox Chase Cancer Center
- Recipient of the 2026 ASBMB DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences
- Duke University
- Recipient of the 2026 ASBMB Sustained Leadership Award
- Pennsylvania State University
- Recipient of the 2026 ASBMB Mildred Cohn Young Investigator Award
- University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
- Recipient of the 2026 ASBMB Ruth Kirschstein Award for Maximizing Access in Science
- St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
- Recipient of the 2026 ASBMB William C. Rose Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education
- University of California, Berkeley
- Recipient of the 2026 Avanti Award in Lipids
- University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
- Recipient of the 2026 Bert and Natalie Vallee Award in Biomedical Science
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Recipient of the 2026 Earl and Thressa Stadtman Distinguished Scientist
