Roger Sidney Goody (born 17 April 1944, in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

) is an English

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

who served as director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

from 1993 until 2013. Since 2013 he is Emeritus Director of the institute.

Education

Goody studied Chemistry at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, England, where he was awarded a PhD in 1968 for studies on the chemistry of

cytosine Cytosine () (symbol C or Cyt) is one of the four nucleotide bases found in DNA and RNA, along with adenine, guanine, and thymine ( uracil in RNA). It is a pyrimidine derivative, with a heterocyclic aromatic ring and two substituents attac ...

Career and research

After his PhD, Goody was appointed a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

at the

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a oncology, cancer treatment and research institution in Manhattan in New York City. MSKCC is one of 72 National Cancer Institute–NCI-designated Cancer Center, designated Comprehen ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, NY, USA in the field of natural products research. In 1970 he became a scientific fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen in the field of

nucleotide Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...

research. From 1972 till 1993 he was a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg in the field of

enzymology An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...

and

research, with a focus on

actin Actin is a family of globular multi-functional proteins that form microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and the thin filaments in muscle fibrils. It is found in essentially all eukaryotic cells, where it may be present at a concentration of ...

myosin Myosins () are a Protein family, family of motor proteins (though most often protein complexes) best known for their roles in muscle contraction and in a wide range of other motility processes in eukaryotes. They are adenosine triphosphate, ATP- ...

, adenylate kinase, EF-Tu, HRAS-p21, reverse transcriptase,

nucleotides Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...

and

nucleic acid Nucleic acids are large biomolecules that are crucial in all cells and viruses. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomer components: a pentose, 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main classes of nuclei ...

sequencing. An overriding theme of his research interests has been the transient states of enzymes, along the enzyme reaction pathway, against the background of selective and specific ligand-protein interactions and structure-function relationships. In 1983 he habilitated at the faculty for biochemistry and biophysics of the University of Heidelberg and was announced adjunct professor in 1990. In 1993 he accepted the position of Director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund and became a scientific fellow of the Max Planck Society. Since 2004 he has also held a full professorship in biochemistry (supramolecular systems) at the Ruhr University Bochum, with a dual emphasis on higher education and fundamental research. Goody has combined chemistry, structural biology and kinetics to make major contributions in several fields of biology. He pioneered the use of nucleotide analogs, synthesized at the beginning of his career, in muscle research and later for Ras-family GTPases, leading to the first ever structure determination of an unstable protein-substrate complex (Ras:GTP). Innovative use of semi-synthetic proteins led to an understanding of transport mechanisms of Rab GTPases and to resolution of a longstanding controversy concerning targeting of these proteins to membranes. His group discovered and characterized hitherto unrecognized covalent modifications of Rab proteins by bacteria.

Honours, awards and memberships

From 2013 to 2015, Goody was President of the German Society for Biochemistry and molecular Biology (GBM). In 2018 he was elected Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. * President of the German Society of Biochemistry and molecular Biology * German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 2003) * Max Bergman Society * Awarded membership of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) * Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin Buch * Chairman of the Study Section for Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German National Research Organization) - 2000-2009 *1991: Max Planck Prize *2003: German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina *2008: Max Bergmann Medal *2012: Astbury Lecture - Astbury Society, Leeds *2012: Xu Guangqi Lecture, CAS-Max-Planck Partner Institute, Shanghai China *2015: Feldberg Prize *2018: Elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS)

Personal life

Goody is married to the biologist Dr. Waltraud Hofmann-Goody and has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goody, Roger Sidney 1944 births Living people 20th-century English chemists English biochemists 21st-century British chemists Max Planck Society people Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Alumni of the University of Birmingham