Ronald T. Raines

Ronald T. Raines (b. August 13, 1958 in Montclair, New Jersey) is an American chemical biologist. He is the Henry Lardy Professor of Biochemistry and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Raines received Sc.B. degrees in chemistry and biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, doing undergraduate research with Christopher T. Walsh. He received A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at Harvard University with Jeremy R. Knowles, the title of his doctoral thesis being Energetics of Enzymatic Catalysis: Triosephosphate Isomerase. He was a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco with William J. Rutter. He joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1989.

Raines has made notable contributions to the exploration and exploitation of proteins. He demonstrated that mammalian ribonucleases can become potent cytotoxins and potential cancer chemotherapeutics. Raines discovered fundamental attributes of the collagen triple helix, enabling him to assemble triple helices that are stronger and longer than any found in nature. He and Laura L. Kiessling developed the traceless Staudinger ligation as a means to couple synthetic peptides and thus synthesize proteins.

Raines has been the research advisor of more than 25 doctorates and more than 20 postdoctorates. He is an author of more than 200 research papers, and an inventor on more than 10 US patents.

Raines has received the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry and Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, the Emil Thomas Kaiser Award from the Protein Society, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Raines is a founder of Quintessence Biosciences, Inc.