Regents’ Professor & Florence Ely Nelson Presidential Chair in Plant Biology
Academic Affiliation
School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Credentials
PhD, 1970, Purdue University
Bio
Charles J. Arntzen, PhD, is pioneer in the development of plant-based vaccines for disease prevention in humans and animals and served as founding director of the Biodesign Institute from January 2001 through May 2003. He was appointed to the Florence Ely Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair at Arizona State University in Tempe in 2000 and as Regents’ Professor in 2004. Dr. Arntzen is charting a new path for making the vaccines of tomorrow. Arntzen has held faculty positions at the University of Illinois and Michigan State University and visiting professorships in the Laboratorie de Photosynthese du CNRS in France, the Department of Applied Mathematics in Canberra, Australia and the Academia Sinica in Beijing, China. In addition to his work in academia, Dr. Arntzen served as President and CEO of Boyce Thompson Institute-a not-for-profit corporation affiliated with Cornell University and as a research director at Dupont in Wilmington, Delaward.
Dr. Arntzen has a particular interest in overcoming health and agricultural constraints in the developing world. His primary area of research is plant molecular biology and protein engineering with an emphasis on the utilization of plant biotechnology for enhancement of food quality and value. Current research includes the expression of pharmacologically active products in transgenic plants. In addition to looking at ways to create effective vaccines against natural pathogens, Dr. Arntzen is exploring ways to make vaccines and therapeutics to reduce the threat of biowarfare agents. As author of numerous publications focused on various aspects of plant-based vaccine technology, Dr. Arntzen has participated in numerous national and international committees that serve general scientific interests. In 2003, Dr. Arntzen was awarded the Selby Fellowship by the Australian Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the University of Chicago (for the Argonne National Laboratory) and served as chairperson for their Science and Technology Advisory Committee. He has also serves as chairman of the National Biotechnology Policy Board of the National Institutes of Health and as chairman of the National Research Council’s Committee on Biobased Industrial Products, and on the National Research Council’s Committee on Space Biology and Medicine. He served for eight years on the Editorial Board of SCIENCE, as well.
Dr. Arntzen received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota and his PhD from Purdue University.