Harry B. Gray
Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry, Founding Director of Beckman Institute, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, USA
Protein Folding, Misfolding, and Disease
Professor Gray's interdisciplinary research program addresses a wide range of fundamental problems in inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysics. Electron-transfer (ET) chemistry is a unifying theme for much of this research. Current research is aimed at understanding how intermediate protein radicals accelerate long-range ET. The Gray group have succeeded in accelerating the delivery of electrons and holes to the buried active site of cytochrome P450 by tethering a photochemical redox sensitizer to P450 substrate analogs. The Gray group is also using ET chemistry to probe the dynamics of protein folding. Laser-induced ET reactions are being used both to trigger and to probe the folding of redox active proteins. Research also is aimed at using fluorescence energy transfer to probe the heterogeneity of protein ensembles during folding.Professor Gray has received the National Medal of Science from President Ronald Reagan (1986); the Bailar Medal (1984); the Centenary Medal (1985); the Pauling Medal (1986); the Linderstrøm-Lang Prize (1991); the Basolo Medal (1994); the Gibbs Medal (1994); the Chandler Medal (1999); the Harvey Prize (2000); the Nichols Medal (2003); the Wheland Medal (2003); the Grollman Award (2003); the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences (2003); the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry (2004); the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2004); six national awards from the American Chemical Society, including the Priestley Medal (1991); and honorary doctorates from Northwestern, Rochester, Illinois Wesleyan, Oberlin, Bowling Green, Arizona, South Carolina, Chicago, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Carleton (Canada), Paul Sabatier (France), Gothenburg (Sweden), Florence (Italy), and Copenhagen (Denmark). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the American Philosophical Society; a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; and the Royal Society of Great Britain. He was California Scientist of the Year in 1988. During 1997-98, he was the George Eastman Visiting Professor at Oxford University.