Roman Subbotin

Presented by Brian T. Chait

B.S., M.S., Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University

M.S., University of Minnesota

Chemical Stabilization—A Path Towards Deciphering Protein-Protein Interactions in the Cellular Milieu

Roman Subbotin was born in Stryi in the Soviet Ukraine. He studied chemistry at Kiev State University and inorganic chemistry at the University of Minnesota before joining our Tri-Institutional Program in Chemical Biology.

In the lab, Roman’s task became in essence the development of a generalized molecular microscope for mapping the macromolecular components of cells in space and time. As you are no doubt aware, living cells are amazingly complex collections of microscopic molecular structures and machines with tens of thousands of different molecular players taking part in a beautifully orchestrated choreography of almost unimaginable complexity. Think of something like all of New York City compressed into an object that is perhaps a thousandth of an inch across! To gain insight into this orchestration, it is imperative to have available tools that can tell us which of the tens of thousands of different molecular players are interacting in space and time, and how they are organized into dynamic structures and machines to allow cells to accomplish their myriad tasks.

Although tools certainly exist to do part of this job, they are mostly specialized to look at just a few macromolecules at a time. And the more general tools are currently beset with problems of differentiating the real interactions from those that occur non-specifically, as well as their inability to catch the myriad important interactions that occur only transiently. Roman took on the task of developing such a much-needed tool with determination, courage, and imagination. While his broad chemistry skills were certainly important to the task, I believe that even more important were his keen powers of observation, his open-mindedness, and his extraordinary stubbornness—outstanding characteristics that ultimately allowed him to succeed spectacularly in a task that had eluded so many fine scientists for so many years. In the process, Roman has developed an extraordinarily useful tool that I believe will be widely used by biologists for uncovering the secrets of the cell.