Raymond L. Rodriguez (born 1947) is an American professor of biology, specializing in molecular biology, genomics and biotechnology. His current research interests include diet-genome interactions, plant-made pharmaceuticals and the food/brain axis. Rodriguez is also an inventor, and entrepreneur.Watry, G.. (2017). Can Diet Help Prevent or Postpone Cognitive Decline? His research at the University of California, San Francisco in the 1970s helped lay the foundation for the biotechnology industry. He also holds several issued US patents. He is involved in programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion for women and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
Early life and education The son of migrant farm workers, Rodriguez was born in 1947 in Fresno, California and raised in San Joaquin and Kerman, California. In 1965, he graduated from Kerman Union High School. After graduating from Fresno City College, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from California State University, Fresno in 1969 and in the following year he entered the PhD program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Under the supervision of professor Cedric Davern, Rodriguez produced visual autoradiographic evidence for bidirectional replicationRodriguez, R. L., Dalbey, M. S., & Davern, C. I. (1974). Autoradiographic evidence for bidirectional DNA replication in escherichia coli. Journal of Molecular Biology, 74(4), 599–602. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-2836(73)90050-8 of the E. coli chromosome. While a UC Santa Cruz graduate student, Rodriguez received a research fellowship from the Ford Foundation in 1973.
Post-doctoral research
After receiving his PhD in 1974, Rodriguez was awarded an A.P. Giannini postdoctoral fellowship to work with professor Herbert W. Boyer in the department of microbiology at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. In Boyer's laboratory, Rodriguez collaborated with postdoctoral fellow, Francisco Bolivar Zapata (Paco), to construct more efficient and better characterized cloning vectors. Together, they constructed the 4,361 base pair, circular, autonomously replicating, DNA molecule, pBR322, the first general purpose molecular cloning vector approved by the National Institute of Health Guidelines.Institute of Medicine. 2014. Oversight and Review of Clinical Gene Transfer Protocols: Assessing the Role of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Bolivar, F., Betlach, M., Heyneker, H., Shine, J., Rodriguez, R., & Boyer, H. (1977). Origin of Replication of pBR345 Plasmid DNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 74(12), 5265–5269. Retrieved June 10, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/67334 The abbreviation, “pBR322,” refers to the plasmid “p,” constructed by Bolivar and Rodriguez “BR,” and the last of “322” transformed colonies to be screened for the pBR322pBR322 an example of plasmid vector. (n.d.). Cloning Vectors. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from http://www.asiyakm.yolasite.com/pbr322.php plasmid. The 1977 publication describing the construction of pBR322Bolivar, F., R.L. Rodriguez, P.J. Greene, M.C. Betlach, H.L. Heyneker, Boyer H.W. Crosa, J.H. S. Falkow. 1977. Construction and characterization of new cloning vehicles. II. A multipurpose cloning system. Gene, 2:95. has been cited more than 6,000 times. Soon after its approval by the NIH, pBR322 was used to clone and express the first chemically synthesized gene for the human peptide hormone, somatostatin.Itakura K, Hirose T, Crea R, Riggs AD, Heyneker HL, Bolivar F, Boyer HW. Expression in Escherichia coli of a chemically synthesized gene for the hormone somatostatin. Science. 1977 Dec 9;198(4321):1056–63. doi: 10.1126/science.412251. PMID 412251. The following year, researchers at Harvard University used pBR322 to clone and express rat proinsulin.Villa-Komaroff, L., Efstratiadis, A., Broome, S., Lomedico, P., Tizard, R., Naber, S. P., Chick, W. L., & Gilbert, W. (1978). A bacterial clone synthesizing proinsulin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 75(8), 3727–3731. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.75.8.3727 The main components of pBR322 can be found in many other plasmid vectors, particularly the pUC plasmids designed and constructed by professor Joachim Messing.
In 1976 Rodriguez received fellowships from the National Cancer Institute and the UC President's postdoctoral fellowship program to support plasmid vector research and development.
Career
In 1977, Rodriguez joined the faculty of the University of California, Davis, department of molecular and cellular biology (formerly the genetics department). There, he developed specialized promoter-probe cloning vectorsNeve, R.L., R.W. West and R.L. Rodriguez. 1979. Eukaryotic DNA fragments which act as promoters for a plasmid gene. Nature 277:324–325.West, R.W., Jr., R.L. Neve and R.L. Rodriguez. 1979. Construction and characterization of E. coli promoter-probe plasmid vectors. I. Cloning promoter-containing DNA fragments. Gene 7:271. to better understand the regulation of bacterial transcription. In 1998 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and later their Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award (1992) and the Principles of Community Award (2012), from the UC Davis College of Biological Science.
In 1990, as a member of the Physical Mapping Group, Rodriguez gained experience with genomics by participating in the cloning and mapping of the human APOE gene on chromosome 19 at the Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryLoop. (n.d.). Raymond L. Rodriguez. Retrieved June 10, 2021. Shortly thereafter, he created the International Rice Genome Organization,UC Davis. (n.d.).Ray L. Rodriguez. Retrieved July 4, 2021Song, S., Tian, D., & Zhang, Z. (2018). Rice Genomics: over the Past Two Decades and into the Future. Genomics, Proteomics, & Bioinformatics, 16(6), 397–404. an ad hoc organization of genomics and agriculture experts to develop a strategy for sequencing the rice genome.Sasaki T. (1998). The rice genome project in Japan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 95(5), 2027–2028. This strategy was later used by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. (n.d.). Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. MAFF. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from https://www.maff.go.jp/e/index.html The first draft of the rice genome was released on April 5, 2002.Whitfield, J. (2002, April 5). Rice genome unveiled : Nature News. Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science. https://www.nature.com/news/2002/020402/full/news020402-6.html
In January 2003, Rodriguez received funds from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to create a Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics.Rodriguez, R. (2008, February 27). NCMHD Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics. Grantome. https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/P60-MD000222-05S1) SACNAS. (14 March 2014). 2013 SACNAS Keynote: Dr Raymond Rodriguez. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6RwtfSRuYU The center was a collaborative effort with the Children's Hospital of Oakland Research Institute.Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. (n.d.). Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute . CHORI. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from http://www.chori.org/ Rodriguez served as center director until 2009.
From 2007 to 2008, he chaired the committee of visitors for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences, Plant Genome Research, 3-Year Program Review which assessed the impact of plant genome sequencing on plant biology research.(28, October.) “Plant Genome Research Program (Pgrp).” Beta Site for NSF – National Science Foundation, beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/plant-genome-research-program-pgrp.
In 2008 Rodriguez was a distinguished lecturer for the USDA-ARS Beltsville Center.USDA. (August 13, 2016). Nutritional Genomics: Linking Agriculture, Nutrition and Genomics to Human Health. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
In 2009, Rodriguez received an honorary Doctorate of Science, from Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Nara, JapanNAIST. (2010, January 14). Honorary Doctoral Degree conferment ceremony for Professor Rodriguez and International Exchange Day 2009. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
In 2010, Rodriguez, with the help of professor Somen Nandi,UC Davis. “Somen Nandi.” Chemical Engineering. 6 December 2020, che.engineering.ucdavis.edu/directory/somen-nandi. formed Global HealthShare Initiative (GHS),Ahmed F., (December 30, 2010). Edible advice. Nature, vol. 468, 2010, s10-12.Bailey, Pat. (June 19, 2014). “UCD Dairy Training Aims to Boost Rwandans' Health.” Davis Enterprise, 20 June 2014, www.davisenterprise.com/news/local/ucd/ucd-dairy-training-aims-to-boost-rwandans-health/. an outreach and knowledge dissemination program. As GHS's executive director,Global HealthShare Initiative. (n.d.). Raymond Rodriguez, Ph.D. Executive Director. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from http://ghs.ucdavis.edu/member-raymond.shtml and vice president of Humanity Beyond Barriers,“HBB Has Completed Its Phase II Covid-19 RELIEF AIDS.” Humanity Beyond Barriers, 4 Apr. 2021, www.humanitybeyondbarriers.org/. he helped organized international health projectsGlobal HealthShare Initiative. (n.d.-a). Galleries. Global HealthShare UCD. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from https://globalhealthshareucd.smugmug.com/ in India,Nandi, S., Thota, S., Nag, A., Divyasukhananda, S., Goswami, P., Aravindakshan, A., Rodriguez, R.L., and Mukherjee, B. 2016. Computing for Rural Empowerment: Enabled by Last-Mile Telecommunications. IEEE Communications Magazine 54(6): 102–109. DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.2016.7498095 Bangladesh,Global HealthShare. (2013, August 2). Diarrheal Disease Treatment: Why It’s Important. Global HealthShare Initiative. https://globalhealthshare.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/diarrheal-disease-treatment-why-its-important/ and Rwanda.Global HealthShare Initiative. (n.d.-b). Increasing Global Economic Citizenship One Healthy Village at a Time. Retrieved September 26, 2020, from http://ghs.ucdavis.edu/
In 2012, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) funded Rodriguez to engineer a plant-made human butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), an enzyme used to treat the effects of chemical warfare agents, like sarin gas.Corbin, J.M., Hashimoto, B.I., Karuppanan, K., Kyser, Z. R., Wu, L., Roberts, B.A., Noe, A.R., Rodriguez, R.L., McDonald, K.A., and Nandi, S. 2016. Semicontinuous bioreactor production of recombinant butyrylcholinesterase in transgenic rice cell suspension cultures. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7 (412): 1–8, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.00412. Using the fermentation of rice cells transformed with the human BuChE gene, the plant-made enzyme was found to be as effective as human-sourced BuChE in neutralizing sarin.Corbin, J.M., Kailemia, M. J., Cadieux, L. C., Alkanaimsh, S., Karuppanan, K., Rodriguez, R.L., Lebrilla, C.B., Cerasoli, D.M., McDonald, K.A., and Nandi, S. 2018. Purification, Characterization, and N-glycosylation of Recombinant Butyrylcholinesterase from Transgenic Rice Cell Suspension Cultures. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 1–10. DOI: 10.1002/bit.26557
In 2015, he was an invited presenter to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).US Department of Energy. (2020, June 24). President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Office of Science. https://science.osti.gov/About/PCAST