Biography of Professor Don C. Wiley
December 21, 2001

Don C. Wiley was the John L. Loeb Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Harvard University's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Wiley's research, which made him one of the most influential biologists of his generation, focused on the structure of viruses and proteins in the human immune system. Specifically, his work sought to understand the molecular mechanisms that enable viruses to infect cells and to discover how cells respond to external challenges by presenting antigens and mobilizing defensive cells.

In studying the structure of viruses such as Influenza, AIDS , Ebola, and herpes simplex, he examined the ways in which viruses bind to cell surfaces and enter cells and the ways in which viruses has evolved to infect different organisms and to escape the immune response of their hosts. By understanding these processes, Wiley sought to find new ways to combat these viruses.

In 1999, Wiley, along with Jack Strominger, Higgins Professor of Biochemistry, won the prestigious Japan Prize for their discoveries of how the immune system protects humans from infections.

"The seminal contributions of Drs. Strominger and Wiley are fundamental in understanding the molecular and chemical bases for functioning of the immune system," the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan — which awards the prize — said at the time. "Their innovative work is one of the highlights of modern biology."

The prize recognizes original and outstanding achievements that advance knowledge and serve the cause of peace and prosperity for humankind.

In 1995, Wiley and Strominger won Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards for their work on the immune system, which has revealed both how the body fights infections and rejects organ transplants.

Wiley also worked closely with another distinguished structural biologist, Harvard colleague Steve Harrison, Higgins Professor of Biochemistry.

Born Oct. 21, 1944 in Akron, Ohio, Wiley grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He did his undergraduate work at Tufts University, receiving a bachelor of science in physics in 1966. He received a doctorate from Harvard in biophysics, under the direction of William N. Lipscomb, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, in 1971. He was named assistant professor in Harvard's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1971, associate professor in 1975 and professor in 1979.

Wiley was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his other honors were the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University, the V. D. Mattia Award from the Roche Institute, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, and the Rose Payne Distinguished Scientist Award.