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 th ...

. He is known for using ideas and methods of physical organic chemistry 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 ...

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 Delawa ...

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 in North Caldwell, New Jersey. He received Sc.B. degrees in chemistry and biology at the

, doing undergraduate research with Christopher T. Walsh on

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 ...

-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 highe ...

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 i ...

. 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 t ...

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 ...

, where he cloned and expressed the gene encoding bovine pancreatic ribonuclease.

Career

Raines was a member of the faculty at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

from 1989 until 2017. There, he was the

Henry A. Lardy Henry A. Lardy NAS AAA&S APS (August 19, 1917 – August 4, 2010) was a biochemist and professor emeritus in the biochemistry department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1958, the Ame ...

Professor of Biochemistry, Linus Pauling 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. 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''; ''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 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 Presid ...

*Shaw Scientist Award * Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, 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 chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Inst ...

Fellow *Rao Makineni Lectureship *Welch Lectureship *

Repligen Corporation Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes The Repligen Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes was established in 1985 and consists of a silver medal and honorarium. Its purpose is to acknowledge and encourage outstanding contributions to the understanding of the chemistry of biological ...

, ACS *Jeremy Knowles Award, RSC *

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 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, a ...

*Khorana Prize, RSC *''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