University of Wisconsin–Madison biochemistry assistant professor Philip Romero and neuroscience assistant professor Ari Rosenberg are the recipients of 2018 Shaw Scientist Awards from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. The awards come with $200,000 in seed funding to support innovative research approaches and the career development of young investigators.
Romero’s work uses new technologies to understand how proteins work and how to design new ones. Using computational methods, he is able to analyze large amounts of data that help him investigate the relationships between protein sequence, structure and function. This allows him to pull out sequences that lead to useful properties and design new proteins with desired functions.
His research has many implications because the proteins can be engineered to have specific functions, such as in bioenergy, chemical production and human health. Projects are investigating how to help convert biomass to fuel and develop cancer therapeutics. Along with these applications, the group also focuses on developing new protein engineering methods.
“The Shaw Award will enable us to pursue new high-risk projects that wouldn’t be supported by the standard funding agencies,” Romero says. “We’re excited to think longer term about where our field is headed, and how we can make a large impact on engineering biological systems.”
Romero joined the department in July 2016. He earned his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology. At UW–Madison, he is also affiliated with the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Romero joins a decades-long line of Department of Biochemistry faculty members in receiving the award. In 2017, assistant professor Ophelia Venturelli received a Shaw Award and the year before that, so did assistant professor Vatsan Raman, with many more before them.
Read more about Romero and his work at the link below.