Gaetano T. Montelione

Last updated
Gaetano T. Montelione
Gaetano T. Montelione.jpg
Born
Bronx, New York
EducationB.S.in Biochemistry (Cornell University)
M.A., Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (Cornell University)
Scientific career
Fields Molecular Biophysics, Structural Biology

Gaetano T. Montelione is an American biophysical chemist, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Constellation Endowed Chair in Structural Bioinformatics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. [1]

Contents

His research program includes work on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) pulse sequence development, software for automated analysis of protein NMR data, and applications of structural bioinformatics in biomedical research. [2]

Background and education

Gaetano Montelione was born in the Bronx, NY. He graduated from Half Hollow Hills High School in Dix Hills, NY. He received a B.S. with Highest Honors in Biochemistry from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and completed a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Cornell University under the joint mentorship of Harold A. Scheraga (Cornell) and Kurt Wüthrich (ETH - Zürich).

Montelione carried out post-doctoral research in protein NMR pulse sequence development in the laboratory of Gerhard Wagner in the Biophysics Research Division at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

He subsequently joined the faculty of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry [3] at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ), and the Rutgers Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (Piscataway, NJ), directed by Aaron Shatkin. He was promoted to the rank of Distinguished Professor and appointed as the inaugural holder of the endowed Jerome and Lorraine Aresty Chair in Cancer Research. [4]   Montelione continues his research as a Professor and Constellation Endowed Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic University and as Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University.

Career

From 2000 to 2016, Montelione was Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium (NESG), [5] funded through the NIH Protein Structure Initiative. [6] The NESG program developed new technology for protein sample production, NMR, X-ray crystallography, and structural bioinformatics. More than 1,200 protein three-dimensional structures were determined by the NESG team, led by Montelione, using crystallography and NMR. [7] Most of these were the first structures determined from large protein families, providing the basis for creating three-dimensional models of hundreds of thousands of protein structures by homology modeling and machine learning.

With G. Wagner (Michigan), Montelione carried out pioneering work on NMR pulse sequence development, including the design and implementation of the first triple-resonance protein NMR experiments for determining polypeptide resonance assignments, [8] as well as the ZZ-exchange and J1-resolved E_COSY experiments. [9]   At Rutgers, he followed up this work by development of the HCCNH-TOCSY, HCCcoNH-TOCSY, and related triple-resonance NMR experiments used for determining resonance assignments and 3D structures of proteins. 

Montelione has made key contributions in computational NMR methods development, including the development of software for automated analysis of protein resonance assignments, automated analysis of 3D structures, and for protein NMR model quality assessment. Work with Prof. R. Krug on structure-function relationships of the influenza A non-structural protein 1 (NS1) and SARS  corona virus proteases have provided the basis for creation of attenuated virus vaccines and leads for antiviral drug development.

Currently, as an advisor to the world-wide Protein Data Bank, and co-chair of the international wwPDB Task Force on NMR Structure Validation, [10] Montelione leads efforts to standardize methods for protein NMR model validation. He is also a member of the Prediction Assessment Committee of the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP).

Montelione was co-scientific founder of Structure Function Genomics, Inc., [11] Geneformatics, Inc., [12] and Nexomics Biosciences, Inc. [13]

Honors and awards

Related Research Articles

The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a database for the three-dimensional structural data of large biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. The data, typically obtained by X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, or, increasingly, cryo-electron microscopy, and submitted by biologists and biochemists from around the world, are freely accessible on the Internet via the websites of its member organisations. The PDB is overseen by an organization called the Worldwide Protein Data Bank, wwPDB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Wüthrich</span> Swiss chemist

Kurt Wüthrich is a Swiss chemist/biophysicist and Nobel Chemistry laureate, known for developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for studying biological macromolecules.

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is an intergovernmental organization (IGO) which, as part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) family, focuses on research and services in bioinformatics. It is located on the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton near Cambridge, and employs over 600 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. Institute leaders such as Rolf Apweiler, Alex Bateman, Ewan Birney, and Guy Cochrane, an adviser on the National Genomics Data Center Scientific Advisory Board, serve as part of the international research network of the BIG Data Center at the Beijing Institute of Genomics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molecular biophysics</span> Interdisciplinary research area

Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in terms of molecular structure, structural organization, and dynamic behaviour at various levels of complexity. This discipline covers topics such as the measurement of molecular forces, molecular associations, allosteric interactions, Brownian motion, and cable theory. Additional areas of study can be found on Outline of Biophysics. The discipline has required development of specialized equipment and procedures capable of imaging and manipulating minute living structures, as well as novel experimental approaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen M. Berman</span> American chemist

Helen Miriam Berman is a Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University and a former director of the RCSB Protein Data Bank. A structural biologist, her work includes structural analysis of protein-nucleic acid complexes, and the role of water in molecular interactions. She is also the founder and director of the Nucleic Acid Database, and led the Protein Structure Initiative Structural Genomics Knowledgebase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Structure validation</span> Process of evaluating 3-dimensional atomic models of biomacromolecules

Macromolecular structure validation is the process of evaluating reliability for 3-dimensional atomic models of large biological molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. These models, which provide 3D coordinates for each atom in the molecule, come from structural biology experiments such as x-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The validation has three aspects: 1) checking on the validity of the thousands to millions of measurements in the experiment; 2) checking how consistent the atomic model is with those experimental data; and 3) checking consistency of the model with known physical and chemical properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramakrishna V. Hosur</span> Indian biophysical scientist (born 1953)

Professor Ramakrishna Vijayacharya Hosur is an Indian biophysical scientist, known for his expertise in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance and molecular biophysics. The Government of India honoured him, in 2014, by awarding him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of science and technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Watts (biophysicist)</span>

Anthony Watts is a British biochemist and Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford and C W Maplethorpe Fellow in Biological Sciences and tutor at St. Hugh's College, Oxford. He is a fellow of the Royal Chemical Society, the Institute of Physics, Royal Society of Biology and Biophysical Society. He was managing director of the European Biophysics Journal, and is a co-opted member of the European Biophysical Societies' Association (EBSA), chair of the British Biophysical Society and chair of the Scientific Committee for the IUPAB/EBSA/BBS/IoP Biophysics congress, 2017. He was President of EBSA (2017-2019) and elected President-elect of IUPAB in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. Marius Clore</span> Molecular biophysicist, structural biologist

G. Marius Clore MAE, FRSC, FRS is a British-born, Anglo-American molecular biophysicist and structural biologist. He was born in London, U.K. and is a dual U.S./U.K. Citizen. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a NIH Distinguished Investigator, and the Chief of the Molecular and Structural Biophysics Section in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is known for his foundational work in three-dimensional protein and nucleic acid structure determination by biomolecular NMR spectroscopy, for advancing experimental approaches to the study of large macromolecules and their complexes by NMR, and for developing NMR-based methods to study rare conformational states in protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein recognition. Clore's discovery of previously undetectable, functionally significant, rare transient states of macromolecules has yielded fundamental new insights into the mechanisms of important biological processes, and in particular the significance of weak interactions and the mechanisms whereby the opposing constraints of speed and specificity are optimized. Further, Clore's work opens up a new era of pharmacology and drug design as it is now possible to target structures and conformations that have been heretofore unseen.

Narayanaswamy Srinivasan was an Indian molecular biophysicist and a professor and the head of Proteins: Structure, Function and Evolutionary Group at the Molecular Biophysics Unit of the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his researches in the fields of computational genomics and protein structure analysis. An elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India, he is a J. C. Bose National fellow of the Department of Biotechnology and a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Science and Technology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2007, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Kanakaraj Sekar is an Indian bioinformatician and a professor at the Department of Computational and Data Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Known for his studies in the field of bioinformatics, Sekar heads the Laboratory for Structural Biology and Bio-computing at IISc. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2004.

Ramasubbu Sankararamakrishnan is an Indian computational biologist, bioinformatician and a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is known for his computational studies on membrane protein function. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2008.

Nagasuma Chandra is an Indian structural biologist, biochemist and a professor at the department of biochemistry of the Indian Institute of Science. She is known for her studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded her the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for her contributions to biosciences in 2008.

Debasisa Mohanty is an Indian computational biologist, bioinformatician and a staff scientists at the National Institute of Immunology, India. Known for his studies on structure and function prediction of proteins, genome analysis and computer simulation of biomolecular systems, Mohanty is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2009.

Jerson Lima Silva, usually known as Jerson Lima, is a Brazilian biophysicist. He is known for his pioneering research in the field of structural biology, publishing important studies on protein folding and the relationship between protein aggregates and diseases such as cancer, prion diseases and Parkinson's disease.

David S. Wishart is a Canadian researcher and a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. Wishart also holds cross appointments in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. Additionally, Wishart holds a joint appointment in metabolomics at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. Wishart is well known for his pioneering contributions to the fields of protein NMR spectroscopy, bioinformatics, cheminformatics and metabolomics. In 2011, Wishart founded the Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC), which is Canada's national metabolomics laboratory.

Jean Baum is an American chemist. She is the distinguished professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University, where she is also vice dean for research and graduate education in the school of arts and sciences, and also vice chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology. Her research investigates protein–protein interaction and protein aggregation using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and other biochemical and biophysical techniques. She serves as treasurer for the Protein Society.

Tatyana Polenova is a professor in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Delaware. She is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance since 2021. Her research interest involves using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, combined with computational and other biophysical methods, to understand the structure, dynamics, and function of complex macromolecular assemblies, both biological and inorganic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erinna Lee</span> Singaporean molecular biologist

Erinna Lee is a Singaporean molecular biologist specializing in apoptosis and autophagy.

References

  1. ↑ "Gaetano T Montelione, Constellation Chair in Structural Bioinformatics". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  2. ↑ "Gaetano T. Montelione | Science at RPI". Gaetano T. Montelione | Science at RPI. Retrieved March 1, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ "Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry". Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Retrieved March 10, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ↑ "Board of Governors Appoints Gaetano Montelione First Holder of Aresty Chair in Cancer Research". Rutgers University. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ↑ "The Northeast Structural Genomics (NESG)". Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Structural Bioinformatics Laboratory. Retrieved March 10, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ↑ "Protein Structure Initiative". Protein Structure Initiative (program ended 7/1/2015). Retrieved March 10, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ↑ Michalska, K.; Joachimiak, A. (2021). "Structural genomics and the Protein Data Bank". The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 296: 100747. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.100747 . PMC   8166929 . PMID   33957120 . Retrieved March 10, 2022.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ↑ "PII: 0022-2364(90)90098-T - 0000522.pdf". University of Michigan Libraries Deep Blue Repositories. Retrieved March 1, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ↑ Montelione, Gaetano T.; Winkler, Marjorie E.; Rauenbuehler, Peter; Wagner, Gerhard (1989). "Accurate measurements of long-range heteronuclear coupling constants from homonuclear 2D NMR spectra of isotope-enriched proteins". Journal of Magnetic Resonance. 82 (1): 198–204. Bibcode:1989JMagR..82..198M. doi:10.1016/0022-2364(89)90183-2. hdl: 2027.42/28152 . Retrieved March 10, 2022.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ↑ "wwPDB Task Force on NMR Structure Validation". wwPDB: NMR Validation. Retrieved March 10, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ↑ "The Next Chapter in the Book of Life Is Written in the Proteins". The New York Times. July 4, 2000. pp. Section F, Page 1. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  12. ↑ "GeneFormatics schafft durch Fusion und Lizenzvertrag die erste integrierte strukturelle Plattform für die Genomforschung | 24.01.2001". APA-OTS. January 24, 2001. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ↑ "Nexomics Biosciences, Inc". Nexomics Biosciences, Inc. | Protein Production, Structural Biology, Bioinformatics, Discovery. Retrieved March 10, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ↑ "All awardees.xlsx - Awardees 1980.pdf" (PDF). Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ↑ "Gaetano T. Montelione - Searle Scholars Program". The Searle Scholars Program. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ↑ "NSF 95-81 Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences FY 1994 Awards". National Science Foundation. April 10, 1995. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ↑ "Untitled - camille-past.pdf" (PDF). Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ↑ "Society Awards - The Biophysical Society". The Biophysical Society. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ↑ "aaas_ar06_2223_fellows.pdf" (PDF). AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ↑ "Board of Governors Appoints Gaetano Montelione First Holder of Aresty Chair in Cancer Research". Rutgers Today. April 15, 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.