Robert Matts

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Regents Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

2011

 

Dr. Robert Matts received his B.A. degree in Chemistry in 1974 from Hamline University in St. Paul MN. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physiological Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1980. Dr. Matts then joined the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work under the mentorship of Dr. Irving M. London, known for his pioneering work explaining the molecular regulation of hemoglobin synthesis at the level gene transcription and protein translation. In 1985, Dr. Matts joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry (and Molecular Biology) at Oklahoma State University. After discovering that the folding and activation of the heme-regulated eukaryotic initiation factor 2alpha kinase (a translational regulator of hemoglobin synthesis) was dependent on the molecular chaperone Hsp90, his lab has focused on the mechanism through which Hsp90 and its associated co-chaperones modulate protein kinase folding, the mechanism of the anti-tumor activity of Hsp90 inhibitors, and the discovery of novel natural product inhibitors of Hsp90.