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研究

William DeGrado

ENGLISH
教授（国際卓越） William DeGrado
キャンパス 片平 キャンパス
所属研究室 生体分子デノボデザイン
連絡先 022-217-5848
E-mail degrado.william.frank.e4＠tohoku.ac.jp
ホームページ https://profiles.ucsf.edu/william.degrado
Google scholar
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YvyiSzcAAAAJ&hl=en
 
William F. DeGrado is a pioneer in de novo protein design and currently serves as Distinguished Professor at Tohoku University and Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Kalamazoo College in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1981. After beginning his career at DuPont, he later joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1995 and moved to UCSF in 2011. In April 2026, he was appointed Distinguished Professor at Tohoku University, where he launched a new research group at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM). He is widely recognized for foundational contributions to protein design and drug discovery.
 
 
経歴
1981: Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, University of Chicago 
1981: Research scientist / senior director, DuPont and DuPont Merck 
1995: Professor, University of Pennsylvania 
2011–present: Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UCSF 
2026–present: Distinguished Professor, IMRAM, Tohoku University
 
著書・論文
  1. The Emergence of Novel Versus Known Three-Dimensional Structures from Random Sequences. bioRxiv. 2025 Dec 07.Yang R, Yang H, Davydenko A, Mawaldi Z, Kormos R, Myerscough D, Wu Y, DeGrado WF.  PMID: 41573852; PMCID: PMC12822642.
  2. Structure-Based Discovery of Potent and Selective Small-Molecule α5β1 Integrin Inhibitors for Asthma Therapy. ACS Omega. 2025 Dec 16; 10(49):60970-60992.Beresis R, Sundaram A, Jo H, Adler M, Wang Z, McIntosh J, Yeon SK, Huang Q, Ngo G, Sheppard D, DeGrado WF.  PMID: 41427225; PMCID: PMC12713449.
  3. De Novo Design, Directed Evolution and Computational Study of Heme-Binding Helical Bundle Protein Catalysts for Biocatalytic Enantioselective Ge-H Insertion. J Am Chem Soc. 2025 Nov 05; 147(44):40869-40878.Huang W, Adornato GM, Horst M, Alturaifi TM, Hou K, Liu P, DeGrado WF, Yang Y.  PMID: 41123946.
  4. Hydroxy-substituted electron deficient Pd porphyrin cofactors illuminate ultrafast proton transfer reactions. J Inorg Biochem. 2026 Feb; 275:113116.Zhu J, Liu R, Mansergh JP, Ouyang M, Pederson LR, Bakanas I, DeGrado WF, Therien MJ.  PMID: 41390990.
  5. De Novo Design, Directed Evolution and Computational Study of Heme-Binding Helical Bundle Protein Catalysts for Biocatalytic Enantioselective Ge-H Insertion. bioRxiv. 2025 Sep 29.Huang W, Adornato GM, Horst M, Alturaifi TM, Hou K, Liu P, DeGrado WF, Yang Y.  PMID: 41256468; PMCID: PMC12621988.
  6. De novo design of semisynthetic protein nanopores. bioRxiv. 2025 Sep 08.Schnaider L, Hatstat AK, Scott AJ, Tan SK, Hambley RG, Dawson WM, Griffiths RC, Kormos RC, Melo AA, Tse E, Polizzi NF, Wallace EJ, Merz GE, DeGrado WF.  PMID: 40964308; PMCID: PMC12439879.
  7. Design of Light Driven Hole Bifurcating Proteins. ACS Cent Sci. 2025 Oct 22; 11(10):1911-1920.Huang X, Yuly JL, Zhang P, DeGrado WF, Therien MJ, Beratan DN.  PMID: 41142337; PMCID: PMC12550633.
  8. Resolving fibrosis by stimulating HSC-dependent extracellular matrix degradation. Sci Transl Med. 2025 Aug 27; 17(813):eads9470.Sharma S, Prathigudupu V, Cable C, Serrano LR, Nerella S, Chen A, Hassan G, Lakins J, Valenzuela CL, Tsukui T, Ramamoorthi R, Kim JJ, Willenbring H, Mattis AN, Volk RF, Zaro BW, Coon JJ, Beresis R, DeGrado WF, Weaver VM, Christenson SA, Jo H, Chen JY.  PMID: 40864684; PMCID: PMC12474517.
  9. High-throughput discovery of fluoroprobes that recognize amyloid fibril polymorphs. Nat Chem. 2025 Oct; 17(10):1565-1575.Carroll EC, Yang H, Powell WC, Charvat AF, Oehler A, Jones JG, Montgomery KM, Yung A, Millbern Z, Taylor AIP, Wilkinson M, Ranson NA, Radford SE, Vinueza NR, DeGrado WF, Mordes DA, Condello C, Gestwicki JE.  PMID: 40813616; PMCID: PMC12491066.
  10. Exploration of a Class of Aryl Imidazolyl Ureas As Potent Acid Ceramidase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Fibrotic Diseases. ACS Omega. 2025 Aug 12; 10(31):34747-34761.Beresis R, Prathigudupu V, Cable C, Yu A, Adler M, Ramamoorthi R, Yeon SK, Gordan JD, Sharma S, DeGrado WF, Zaro B, Chen JY, Jo H.  PMID: 40821548; PMCID: PMC12355242.
所属学会
Member,  National Academy of Sciences; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member and President (2001-2003), Protein Society

最近の研究について

In addition to his ongoing research at UCSF, Prof. DeGrado has recently expanded his activities to Japan. Since April 2026, he has been leading a new research group at IMRAM, Tohoku University, focusing on de novo protein design, membrane proteins, and therapeutic applications. His work aims to integrate computational design with experimental biology across institutions and to develop next-generation functional biomolecules.

メッセージ

Protein design is an exciting field at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and computation. At Tohoku University, we are building a new research environment where students can take part in creating proteins that have never existed before. I encourage students to stay curious, build strong fundamentals, and enjoy tackling challenging problems.

研究