Richard Wood (molecular biologist) facts for kids

Richard D. Wood, born on June 3, 1955, in Boulder, Colorado, is an American scientist. He studies how our bodies fix damaged DNA. This process is called DNA repair. He also researches mutations, which are changes in our DNA. Dr. Wood is famous for his important work on a special type of DNA repair called Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER). He helped figure out which tiny parts, called proteins, are needed for this repair. He also found out about other important helpers, like PCNA and repair polymerases.

Understanding DNA Repair

Our cells have amazing ways to fix damage to our DNA. One very important way is called Nucleotide Excision Repair, or NER. This process helps repair DNA damage often caused by too much sunlight. Think of sunlight's ultraviolet (UV) rays as tiny hammers. They can hit our DNA and cause problems.

Why NER is Important

The NER pathway is super important for all living things. If a child is born with problems in the genes that make NER proteins, they can get a condition called xeroderma pigmentosum (XP). Kids with XP cannot fix DNA damage, especially from UV light. This means they must stay out of the sun to avoid serious skin problems and cancers.

By the 1980s, scientists knew how NER worked in tiny living things like bacteria. But they didn't fully understand how it worked in human cells. This is where Dr. Wood's work became very important.

Dr. Wood's Discoveries

Dr. Wood made his first big discovery in 1988. He was working in England with another famous scientist, Tomas Lindahl. (Lindahl later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on DNA repair).

How Dr. Wood Studied DNA Repair

In Lindahl's lab, Dr. Wood found a way to do NER on DNA in a test tube. He used special liquids taken from cells. He then used these liquids from the blood cells of children with XP. By doing this, he could start to figure out which different proteins were involved in the NER process. For example, if he added liquid from one group of XP patients to another, the DNA repair would start working again. This helped him identify the missing pieces.

Building the Repair Pathway

Dr. Wood then started his own research team. For the next ten years, they did many experiments. They wanted to understand every single step of the DNA repair process. They did this by adding individual, purified proteins one by one.

The repair process for UV damage works like this:

• First, the cell finds the damaged spot in the DNA.
• Then, it makes tiny cuts in the DNA on both sides of the damage.
• Next, the damaged part of the DNA is removed.
• Finally, the gap is filled in with new, correct DNA using a special helper called a polymerase. The other DNA strand acts as a guide.

Since many proteins are involved in NER, different XP patients might have problems with different proteins. Dr. Wood's team eventually showed that the entire NER pathway could be put together using 30 different purified proteins. This helped him understand DNA repair at a very detailed level.

Since returning to the United States, Dr. Wood's lab has been studying how polymerases help make "emergency" repairs. Sometimes these repairs can lead to new mistakes in the DNA, which might cause cancers.

Education and Career

Richard Wood earned his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Biology in 1977. He studied at Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah. He then received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981. After that, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University from 1982 to 1985.

Today, Dr. Wood is a professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2023, he was chosen to be a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Beyond Science

Outside of his scientific work, Dr. Wood is also a talented jazz bassist. He plays in local bands. His wife, Enid Wood, is a violinist and artist, and they enjoy playing music together.

Awards and Honors

• Elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (2023)
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2018)
• Elected as an AAAS Fellow (2013)
• Received the Meyenburg Cancer Research Prize (1998)
• Elected for EMBO Membership (1998)
• Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (1997)