“I am very honored and humbled to have been selected as a recipient of the Emanuel-Merck Lecture Award,” said Cravatt upon being informed of the award. “It is a tribute to the many outstanding students, fellows, and collaborators with whom I have had the privilege of working in our collective efforts to develop and apply innovative methods for chemical probe and drug discovery.”

“The Emanuel Merck Lectureship 2026 signals Merck’s unwavering long-term commitment to advancing science, as expressed in our mission: ‘Sparking Discovery, Elevating Humanity,’” said Ulrich Betz, Senior Vice President Innovation at Merck.

“The judicious combination of university research and entrepreneurial practice creates spaces for innovation in areas of societal relevance. Differing perspectives need not divide — on the contrary, they can inspire in manifold ways. The great challenges facing society are best tackled together. Between Technische Universität Darmstadt and Merck, this interplay has been working splendidly for many years,” said Petra Grell, Vice-President for Academic Careers and Diversity, paying tribute to the longstanding collaboration with Merck.

Cravatt is a pioneer in activity-based protein profiling, a method that makes it possible to investigate the chemical reactivity of an organism’s entire proteome, for example all human proteins. This approach opens up entirely new ways of studying proteins as key building blocks of life and provides a comprehensive view of their function. In addition to enabling a more systematic understanding of biological processes, chemoproteomics also creates access to new pharmaceuticals. Cravatt’s work therefore paves the way for new therapeutic approaches and for a better understanding of how drugs interact with the entire human proteome.

Benjamin F. Cravatt is professor at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, USA. After completing degrees in biological sciences and history at Stanford University, he earned his doctorate at the Scripps Research Institute, where he discovered the protein fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) as a key enzyme for signaling molecules, including those in the brain. Since 2000, Cravatt has served as professor at the Scripps Research Institute, where he co-founded the field of activity-based protein profiling.

The US researcher was honored yesterday (May 18th) in the Köhler Hall at TU Darmstadt (Hochschulstraße 1) and gave a public lecture entitled “Activity-based protein profiling target and ligand discovery on a global scale.” On May 20, 2026, beginning at 2:00 p.m., Cravatt will also take part in a public discussion with students in room L2|02/C8 on the Lichtwiese campus.

Hausch/bjb