spectrum.mit | Ronald Raines ’80 was first drawn to chemistry and biology
as an undergraduate at MIT, where he completed a double major, studying
enzymes in a chemistry lab on the first floor of the Dreyfus Building.
Some three decades later, he is back in that same building, gesturing
excitedly at protein models arrayed in his office along with books and
travel mementos. As he discusses his research, the “Brass Rat” class
ring on his hand provides a tangible reminder of where he began. And,
it’s clear he is just as interested in chemistry and biology as he ever
was.
Raines, who joined the MIT faculty in 2017 after a long career at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, serves as the Firmenich Professor of
Chemistry at MIT—a professorship with a distinguished 40-year history.
He leads a lab pursuing projects at the interface of both fields that
are poised to have a major impact on medicine and society.
“I’ve always liked tangibility, I’ve liked science I could touch, and
chemistry and biology are both sciences that I can touch,” Raines
explains. “I love projects that span from very fundamental science all
the way to a clinical outcome—that’s the goal.”
One such project that has occupied Raines’s lab for the past five
years started with a straightforward concept: Proteins are complex
molecules that carry out many key tasks in cells, but mutations in the
DNA blueprint used to build them may result in dysfunctional
proteins—and when these damaged proteins are involved in how cells grow
or divide, it can lead to cancer. So, Raines thought, what if you could
overcome such cancer-causing mutations by simply replacing dysfunctional
proteins with working versions?
