Roman A. Zubarev is a professor of medicinal
proteomics in the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at the
Karolinska Institutet
The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is consist ...
. His research focuses on the use of
mass spectrometry in biology and medicine.
Early life and education
* M.S. in
applied physics
Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering.
"Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...
at
Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, 1986
* Ph.D. in
ion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
physics at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance during ...
, 1997
Research interests
*
Electron-capture dissociation
Electron-capture dissociation (ECD) is a method of fragmenting gas-phase ions for structure elucidation of peptides and proteins in tandem mass spectrometry. It is one of the most widely used techniques for activation and dissociation of mass sel ...
. In 1997, while in
Fred McLafferty
Fred Warren McLafferty (May 11, 1923 − December 26, 2021) was an American chemist known for his work in mass spectrometry. He is best known for the McLafferty rearrangement reaction that was observed with mass spectrometry. With Roland Gohl ...
's lab at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
, Zubarev discovered the phenomenon of electron-capture dissociation (ECD) of polypeptides. He later developed ECD and other ion-electron reactions
2 as analytical techniques in Odense (1998
–2002) and Uppsala (2002
–2008).
*
Isotopic resonance hypothesis. Discovered the phenomenon of isotopic resonance in Uppsala (2008), formulated the isotopic resonance hypothesis and experimentally verified it in Stockholm (2009
–2013).
*
Isoaspartate
Isoaspartic acid (isoaspartate, isoaspartyl, β-aspartate) is an aspartic acid residue isomeric to the typical α peptide linkage. It is a β-amino acid, with the side chain carboxyl moved to the backbone. Such a change is caused by a chemical re ...
theory of
Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...
. The role of isoaspartate in Alzheimer’s disease has first been suggested as early as in 1991. Over the next three decades the evidence gradually accumulated, being strongly supported by blood proteomics data.
* Origin of life studies. Zubarev showed that the organic matter produced abiotically in a
Miller–Urey experiment
The Miller–Urey experiment (or Miller experiment) is a famous chemistry experiment that simulated the conditions thought at the time (1952) to be present in the atmosphere of the early, prebiotic Earth, in order to test the hypothesis of the ...
can be assimilated by bacteria, and thus proved that early Earth has been a hospitable place for life. For the first time in history of science, Zubarev obtained a living cell from dead matter. In that landmark experiment, bacteria were separated into lipids, nucleic acids and proteins, and these ingredients were isolated and incubated separately and in a mixture. After incubation, the isolates were seeded on
Petri dish. While isolated molecules showed no growth (negative control), lipid-containing mixtures gave bacterial colonies, proving that life can self-assemble from a mixture of right ingredients.
Awards
* Curt Brunnée Award, 2006
* Biemann Medal, 2007
* Gold medal, Russian Mass Spectrometry Society, 2013
External links
Roman Zubarev(Karolinska Institutet)
(Uppsala University)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zubarev, Roman
Mass spectrometrists
Living people
Cornell University people
Year of birth missing (living people)
People from Stavropol