Ronald T. Raines is an American chemical biologist. He is the Roger and Georges Firmenich Professor of Natural Products Chemistry at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. He is known for using ideas and methods of

physical organic chemistry Physical organic chemistry, a term coined by Louis Hammett in 1940, refers to a discipline of organic chemistry that focuses on the relationship between chemical structures and reactivity, in particular, applying experimental tools of physical ch ...

to solve important problems in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

Education

Raines was born and raised in the

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

suburbs of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His father was a Ph.D. chemist, having worked with Charles O. Beckman at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Raines graduated from

West Essex High School West Essex High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in North Caldwell. The high school is part of the West Essex Regional School District, which comprises the constituent municipalities of Essex Fells, Fairfield, N ...

North Caldwell, New Jersey North Caldwell is a borough in northwestern Essex County, New Jersey, United States, and a suburb of New York City. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 6,694, an increase of 511 (+8.3%) from the 2010 census count ...

. He received Sc.B. degrees in chemistry and biology at the

, doing undergraduate research with

Christopher T. Walsh Christopher T. Walsh NAS IoM AAA&S AAM is a Hamilton Kuhn professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on enzymes and enzyme inhibition, and most recently he is focused on the problem of an ...

pyridoxal phosphate Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, P5P), the active form of vitamin B6, is a coenzyme in a variety of enzymatic reactions. The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has catalogued more than 140 PLP-dependent ac ...

-dependent enzymes. He earned A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

for work with Jeremy R. Knowles on catalysis by

triosephosphate isomerase Triose-phosphate isomerase (TPI or TIM) is an enzyme () that catalyzes the reversible interconversion of the triose phosphate isomers dihydroxyacetone phosphate and D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. TPI plays an important role in glycolysis and ...

. Raines was a

Helen Hay Whitney Helen Julia Hay Whitney (March 11, 1875 – September 24, 1944) was an American poet, writer, racehorse owner/breeder, socialite, and philanthropist. She was a member by marriage of the prominent Whitney family of New York. Early life She was ...

postdoctoral fellow with William J. Rutter in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

, where he cloned and expressed the gene encoding bovine

pancreatic ribonuclease Pancreatic ribonuclease family (, ''RNase'', ''RNase I'', ''RNase A'', ''pancreatic RNase'', ''ribonuclease I'', ''endoribonuclease I'', ''ribonucleic phosphatase'', ''alkaline ribonuclease'', ''ribonuclease'', ''gene S glycoproteins'', ''Ceratit ...

Career

Raines was a member of the faculty at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

from 1989 until 2017. There, he was the Henry A. Lardy Professor of Biochemistry,

Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling (; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific top ...

Professor of Chemical Biology, and a Professor of Chemistry. In 2009, he was a Visiting Associate in Chemistry at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

; in 2014, he was the Givaudan–Karrer Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Universität Zürich. In 2017, he returned to

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

to join the faculty of his alma mater,

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

. Altogether, he has mentored more than 100 graduate students and postdoctorates.Ronald T. Raines
- Chemistry Tree Raines and his coworkers have made the followinga contributions. * Revelation of the basis for the conformational stability of collagen, which is the most abundant protein in animals. 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. His hyperstable collagens are in preclinical trials for the detection and treatment of wounds. * Discovery of how to endow an otherwise innocuous human RNA-cleaving enzyme with toxicity that is specific for cancer cells. Such a ribonuclease is in a human clinical trial as an anti-cancer agent. * Mechanistic insight on cellular redox homeostasis and on imperatives for the uptake of cationic proteins and peptides by mammalian cells. * Invention of chemical processes to synthesize proteins and to convert crude biomass into useful fuels and chemicals, and fluorogenic probes to image the uptake of molecules into living cells. Raines serves on the editorial advisory boards of the journals '' ACS Chemical Biology''; ''

Bioconjugate Chemistry ''Bioconjugate Chemistry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in bioconjugation and the interface between man-made and biological materials. The journal was established in 1990 and is published by the American Chemical ...

''; ''Current Opinion in Chemical Biology''; ''Peptide Science''; ''Protein Engineering, Design & Selection''; and ''

Protein Science ''Protein Science'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on the structure, function, and biochemical significance of proteins, their role in molecular and cell biology, genetics, and evolution, and their regulation and mechan ...

''. He was the Chair of the

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

study section that evaluates grant applications in synthetic and biological chemistry.

Awards and Honors

* Helen Hay Whitney Fellow * Searle Scholar Award *

Presidential Young Investigator Award The Presidential Young Investigator Award (PYI) was awarded by the National Science Foundation of the United States Federal Government. The program operated from 1984 to 1991, and was replaced by the NSF Young Investigator (NYI) Awards and Presiden ...

*Shaw Scientist Award *

Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry The Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, formerly known as the Paul-Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry was established in 1945. Consisting of a gold medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in enzyme chemistry by scientists ...

, ACS *

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

AAAS Fellow Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

*Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, ACS *Emil Thomas Kaiser Award *

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

Fellow *Rao Makineni Lectureship *Welch Lectureship * Repligen Corporation Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes, ACS *Jeremy Knowles Award,

RSC RSC may refer to: Arts * Royal Shakespeare Company, a British theatre company * Reduced Shakespeare Company, a touring American acting troupe * Richmondshire Subscription Concerts, a music society in Richmond, North Yorkshire, England * Rock Ste ...

Humboldt Research Award The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...

*Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry, ACS *Member,

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010. ...

*Vincent du Vigneaud Award *

Royal Society of Biology The Royal Society of Biology (RSB), previously called the Society of Biology, is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom created to advance the interests of biology in academia, industry, education, and research. Fo ...

Fellow *Max Bergmann Medal *Member,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

*Khorana Prize,

*''Biopolymers'' Murray Goodman Memorial Prize, ACS

References

External links

The Raines laboratory website

Sources

*
MIT Department of Chemistry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raines, Ronald T. 21st-century American biochemists 1958 births Living people Harvard University alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Biology Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni West Essex High School alumni