Ronald T. Raines
| Ronald T. Raines | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 13, 1958 (age 60) Montclair, New Jersey |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Research on collagen, ribonucleases, protein chemistry, and biofuels |
| Awards |
Helen Hay Whitney Fellow |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemical Biology |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Doctoral advisor | Jeremy R. Knowles |
Ronald T. Raines is an American chemical biologist. He is the Firmenich Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Education
Raines graduated in 1976 from West Essex High School in North Caldwell, New Jersey. He received Sc.B. degrees in chemistry and biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, doing undergraduate research with Christopher T. Walsh. He earned A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at Harvard University with Jeremy R. Knowles, the title of his doctoral thesis being Energetics of Enzymatic Catalysis: Triosephosphate Isomerase. He was a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco with William J. Rutter. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1989 until 2017, when he joined the faculty at MIT.[1] He was a Visiting Associate in Chemistry at Caltech in 2009.
Career
Raines has made the following noteworthy contributions.
- Revelation of the basis for the conformational stability of collagen, which is the most abundant protein in animals.[2] This work led to the discovery that unappreciated chemical forces—the n→π* interaction and C5 hydrogen bond—contribute to the stability of nearly every protein. Such hyperstable collagens are in preclinical trials as wound-healing agents.
- Discovery of how to endow an otherwise innocuous human RNA-cleaving enzyme with toxicity that is specific for cancer cells.[3] Such a ribonuclease is in a human clinical trial as an anti-cancer agent.
- Mechanistic Insight on cellular redox homeostasis[4] and on imperatives for the uptake of cationic proteins and peptides by mammalian cells.[5]
- Invention of efficient chemical processes to synthesize proteins[6] and to convert crude biomass into useful fuels and chemicals, and fluorogenic probes to image the uptake of molecules into living cells.[7]
Raines is a founder of Quintessence Biosciences, Inc.[8] and Hyrax Energy, Inc.,[9] and he serves on the editorial advisory boards of the journals ACS Chemical Biology; Bioconjugate Chemistry; Peptide Science; Protein Engineering, Design & Selection; and Scientific Advisory Board of the Keystone Symposia.[10]
References
- ↑ "Professors Laura L. Kiessling and Ronald T. Raines to Join the Department".
- ↑ Shoulders, M. D.; Raines, R. T. (2009). "Collagen structure and stability". Annu. Rev. Biochem. 78: 929–958. doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.77.032207.120833. PMC 2846778. PMID 19344236.
- ↑ Leland, P. A.; Raines, R. T. (2001). "Cancer chemotherapy – Ribonucleases to the rescue". Chem. Biol. 8 (5): 405–413. doi:10.1016/S1074-5521(01)00030-8.
- ↑ Kersteen, E. A.; Raines, R. T. (2003). "Catalysis of protein folding by protein disulfide isomerase and small-molecule mimics". Antioxid. Redox Signal. 5 (4): 413–424. doi:10.1089/152308603768295159. PMC 2814249.
- ↑ Fuchs, S. M.; Raines, R. T. (2006). "Internalization of cationic peptides: The road less (or more?) traveled". Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 63 (16): 1819–1822. doi:10.1007/s00018-006-6170-z. PMC 2812862. PMID 16909213.
- ↑ Nilsson, B. L.; Soellner, M. B.; Raines, R. T. (2005). "Chemical synthesis of proteins". Annu. Rev. Biophys. Biomol. Struct. 34: 91–118. doi:10.1146/annurev.biophys.34.040204.144700. PMC 2845543. PMID 15869385.
- ↑ Lavis, L. D.; Raines, R. T. (2008). "Bright ideas for chemical biology". ACS Chem. Biol. 3 (3): 142–155. doi:10.1021/cb700248m. PMC 2802578. PMID 18355003.
- ↑ Quintessence Biosciences
- ↑ Hyrax Energy
- ↑