Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution
Join us after the screening for a Q&A with Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Dr. Phillip A. Sharp; founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering Noubar Afeyan; filmmaker Bill Haney; and entrepreneurial scientist Rachel Meyers, PhD. Moderated by Amy Brand, Director of the MIT Press.
About the Film
Cracking the Code, narrated by Mark Ruffalo, is an inspiring story of vision, perseverance, and the power of science to change the world. Phil Sharp’s journey from a Kentucky farm boy to Nobel laureate embodies the American Dream and the triumph of entrepreneurial spirit. His 1977 groundbreaking discovery of RNA splicing rewrote the rules of molecular biology and ignited a life-saving scientific revolution, laying the foundation for an industry that has become a cornerstone of global innovation and economic growth —and transformed the health of billions of patients worldwide.
About the Speaker
Phillip A. Sharp, an Institute Professor emeritus at MIT, is a member of the Department of Biology and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. He joined the Center for Cancer Research in 1974, serving as director from 1985 to 1991 before becoming head of the Department of Biology for eight years.
He was founding director of the McGovern Institute from 2000 to 2004. Sharp has authored over 500 papers. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Royal Society, UK. Among his many awards are the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, and the National Medal of Science. His long list of service includes the presidency of the AAAS and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee, SU2C Project, AACR. A native of Kentucky, Sharp earned a BA from Union College, Barbourville, KY, and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1969. His work studying the molecular biology of gene expression relevant to cancer and the mechanisms of RNA splicing earned Sharp the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Sharp is a member of the board of directors of the Whitehead and Broad Institutes, the Gairdner Foundation (Canada), and chairs the advisory boards of Fidelity Biosciences Group, SU2C/AACR Scientific Review Committee, ReMedy/IMol Institute (Poland), the MIT Museum, and the Jameel Clinic at MIT. Sharp is a co-founder of Biogen and of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. He is chairman of the scientific advisory board and member of the board of directors, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; advisor and investor, Longwood and Polaris Venture Funds; member of the board of directors, Vir Biotechnology; and member of the scientific advisory board, Danahers, Dewpoint Therapeutics and Skyhawk Therapeutics.
