个人简介

NIH and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow 1993-97 Harvard Medical School/MGH Ph.D. Biophysical Chemistry, Yale University, 1993 B.S. Chemistry, University of Kansas, 1987

研究领域

biological/organic/physical

The Chemical Biology of Protein Synthesis. Research in the Roberts lab focuses on the protein synthesis machinery both as a tool for polypeptide design and as a target that can be probed using chemical means. A key aspect of my lab's work is peptide and protein design using in vitro selection experiments. Toward this end, we use mRNA display, a technique the PI conceived and implemented to enable polypeptide design (see figure below). This approach allows the lab to create and sieve more than 10 trillion independent peptide or protein sequences for function, the most of any technique currently available. In applying any design approach, it is optimal if key issues, including affinity, specificity, diversity, structure, dynamics, and biological activity can be addressed in a principled way. The lab desires to execute a research program that tackles all of these issues. Our passion is using the tools of chemistry to understand and control biological processes. We have applied our design approach to address biological control, molecular recognition, stability, and dynamics in RNA-peptide complexes, G proteins and G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). In the future, our efforts should provide new tools for systems biology and leads for therapeutic development.

近期论文

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Steven W. Millward, Stephen V. Fiacco, Ryan J. Austin, and Richard W. Roberts*. "Design of Cyclic Peptides that Bind Protein Surfaces with Antibody-Like Affinity." ACS Chem. Biol. 2 625-34 (2007). William W. Ja, Anthony West, Sylvia Delker, Pamela Bjorkman, Seymour Benzer, and Richard W. Roberts* "Extension of Drosophila lifespan using a selected peptide inhibitor of the Methuselah G protein-coupled receptor" Nature Chemical Biology 3 415-419 (2007). C. Anders Olson and Richard W. Roberts* "Design, expression, and stability of a diverse protein library based on the tenth fibronectin type III domain" Protein Science, 16 476-484 (2007). William W. Ja, Ofer Wiser, Ryan J. Austin, Lily Y. Jan, Richard W. Roberts* "Turning G proteins on and off: peptide modulators of signaling" ACS Chemical Biology 1, 570-574 (2006). Ofer Wiser, Xiang Qian, Melissa Ehlers, William W. Ja, Richard W. Roberts, Eitan Reuveny, Yuh Nung Jan and Lily Yeh Jan* "Modulation of Basal and Receptor-induced GIRK Potassium Channel Activity and Neuronal Excitability by the Mammalian PINS Homolog LGN" Neuron 50 561-73 (2006). Steven W. Millward, Terry T. Takahashi, Richard W. Roberts.* "A General Route for Post-Translational Cyclization of mRNA Display Libraries." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127 14142-3 (2005). Tianbing Xia, Chaozhi Wan, Richard W. Roberts,* Ahmed H. Zewail.* RNA-Protein Recognition: Single-Residue Ultrafast Dynamical Control of Structural Specifcity and Function. Proc Natl Acad Sci 102 13013-18 (2005). William W. Ja, Richard W. Roberts.* "G Protein-Directed Ligand Discovery with Peptide Combinatorial Libraries." TiBS 30 318-324 (2005). William W. Ja, Anirban Adhikari, Ryan J. Austin, Stephen R. Sprang, and Richard W. Roberts.* "A Peptide Core Motif for Binding Heterotrimeric G protein � Subunits" Journal of Biological Chemistry 280 32057-60 (2005). William W. Ja and Richard W. Roberts.* "Epitope Mapping Using mRNA Display and a Unidirectional Nested Deletion Library" Protein Engineering, Design, and Selection 18 309-19 (2005). W. Bryan Smith, Shelley R. Starck, Richard W. Roberts, and Erin M. Schuman.* "Dopaminergic Stimulation of Local Protein Synthesis Enhances Surface Expression of GluR1 and Synaptic Transmission" Neuron 45 765-779 (2005). Richard W. Roberts.* Engineering Switches, Genetically" Chemistry & Biology 11 1475-1476 (2004); this article is a preview of G. Guntas, S. F. Mitchell, M. Ostermeier "A Molecular Switch Created by In Vitro Recombination of Non-Homologous Genes" Chemistry & Biology 11 1483-87 (2004). Irene A. Chen, Richard W. Roberts, and Jack W. Szostak.* "Systems-Level Properties of Model Protocells and the Emergence of Darwinian Evolution" Science 305 1474-1476 (2004). William W. Ja and Richard W. Roberts.* "In Vitro Selection of State-Specific Modulators of G Protein Signaling Using mRNA Display" Biochemistry, 43, 9265-9275 (2004). Shelley R. Starck, Harry M. Green, Jose Alberola-Ila, and Richard W. Roberts.* "A General Approach to Detect Protein Expression in Vivo Using Fluorescent Puromycin Conjugates" Chemistry & Biology, 11, 999-1008 (2004). Christine T. Ueda and Richard W. Roberts.* " Analysis of a Long Range Interaction Between Conserved Domains of Human Telomerase RNA," RNA, 10, 139-147 (2004). Adam Frankel, Steven W. Millward, and Richard W. Roberts.* "Encodamers: Unnatural Peptide Oligomers Encoded in RNA," Chemistry & Biology, 10, 1043-1050 (2003). Ryan J. Austin, Tianbing Xia, Jinsong Ren, Terry T. Takahashi, and Richard W. Roberts.* "Differential Modes of Recognition in N-peptide/BoxB RNA Complexes" Biochemistry, 42, 14957-14967 (2003). Jeffrey E. Barrick and Richard W. Roberts.* "Achieving Specificity in Selected and Wild-Type N Peptide-RNA complexes," Biochemistry, 42, 12298-13007 (2003). Adam Frankel, Shuwei Li, Shelley R. Starck, and Richard W. Roberts .* "Unnatural RNA Display Libraries," Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 13, 506-512 (2003).