Alfred L. Goldberg
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Alfred L. Goldberg “Fred” died peacefully at his home in Brookline on April 18, 2023 after a long illness, at the age of 80. Fred was a cell biologist-biochemist and a longstanding professor at Harvard Medical School. He was the son of Philip and Mary Goldberg of Providence, RI, the husband of retired hematologist Joan Helpern Goldberg MD, the father of jazz pianist Aaron Goldberg of New York City, and the father of progressive political software engineer Julie Goldberg of Seattle. He was predeceased by his brother, concert promoter Harris Goldberg of Woodstock, NY.
Fred graduated from Classical High School in Providence in 1959 and from Harvard College in 1963, magna cum laude in Biochemical Sciences. As an undergraduate he worked in the lab of Nobel prize-winning geneticist James Watson and was a founding member of the short-lived Harvard Tiddlywinks team. After graduation he spent a year as a Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University, and then two years as a medical student at Harvard Medical School before receiving a PhD in Physiology in 1968 and joining the HMS Faculty. Fred became a full professor at Harvard Medical School in 1977, and emeritus professor in 2022.
His 60 years of research elucidated the key features of intracellular protein degradation, a field that he helped to found. In the late 1970s he discovered the proteasome, a large multisubunit protease complex that is crucial in eliminating abnormal proteins (intracellular garbage disposal), and regulating the levels of normal ones. This mechanism has turned out to be fundamental to how cells rapidly regulate many physiological processes, including cell division, gene expression and other key biological events. His work showed that this was important in activation of the inflammatory response and immune defenses against viruses and cancer. His research has also had implications for the problem of muscle wasting, for neurologic diseases characterized by the accumulation of abnormal proteins, as well as for immunology and chemotherapy. He later helped start a small biotech company that, together with his lab, ultimately developed the proteasome inhibitor Bortezomib/Velcade. This drug has been used world-wide to treat multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in hundreds of thousands of patients and proteasome inhibitors have been widely used in biomedical research. .
Fred stayed highly active writing research papers, supervising his lab and interacting with colleagues up until his death. Many of his former trainees went on to illustrious scientific careers worldwide, and he maintained close friendships and collaborations with peers, mentors and protegés alike. His interests extended beyond science to society at large, including contemporary politics and world history. An amateur poet and music lover, Fred was a true polymath as well as a joyous, warm and funny soul, specializing in doggerel for memorable occasions.
He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, The National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Physiological Society.
Donations in his name may be made to the Alfred and Joan Goldberg Education and Fellowship Fund for Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, to the J Street Education Fund, or to Partners in Health. His funeral will be at 11 AM at Temple Israel, Boston on Thursday, April 20, 2023 with interment at Mount Auburn Cemetery afterwards.