WSU honors biochemist with alumnus award

Washington State University graduate and University of California pharmaceutical biochemist James Wells left the comparatively balmy air of San Francisco this week in favor of a chilly Palouse winter.

But he had a good reason.

Wells, who received his doctorage degree in biochemistry from WSU in 1979, is the most recent recipient of the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor bestowed on a graduate.

Wells is a “pioneering engineer of proteins, antibodies and small molecules,” WSU President Kirk Schulz said, as he and Regents Chair Lura Powell listed Wells’ accomplishments.

The author of more than 190 peer-reviewed papers, an inventor holding more than 60 patents and an elected member of three national academies, Wells operates a research lab at UCSF that designs proteins and molecules that trigger responses in cells. These responses enable scientists to gain a greater understanding of how to treat cancer and inflammation.

After getting his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UC Berkeley in 1973, Wells said, he and his fiance were on a skiing holiday, trying to determine what he wanted to do with his life.

Wednesday, he recalled the phone call from WSU professor Ralph Yount seeking him out, and how it changed his life.

“Somebody cares about me,” he said was his response.

Wells now calls Yount’s recruitment of him for WSU’s doctoral program a “rescue.”

“It was the second best decision I even made, after marrying my wife,” he said.

Wells joins broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, author Sherman Alexie, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, cartoonist Gary Larson and astronaut John Fabian, among others, as winners of the award.