Professor Carol V. Robinson, University of Oxford, UK, celebrates his 65th birthday on April 10, 2021.

Carol V. Robinson’s research focuses on mass spectrometry. She is well known for her contributions to the study of protein folding and her work on ribosomes, molecular chaperones, and, more recently, membrane proteins. Her research has made seminal contributions to structural biology in the gas phase. In particular, her research on the three-dimensional structure of proteins has demonstrated the power of mass spectrometry in the study of large molecular compounds.

 

Carol V. Robinson, born on April 10, 1956, left school at 16 and started work as a technician at Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent, UK, where she began working with mass spectrometry technology. After her graduation and part-time study at an evening school, she studied chemistry and received her Master of Science from the University of Swansea, and her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, both in the UK.

After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Bristol, UK, Robinson accepted a junior position in the mass spectrometry unit at the University of Oxford. She became the first female professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge in 2001 and at the University of Oxford in 2009. Robinson is co-founder and director of OMass Therapeutics, a spin-out company from the University of Oxford that uses mass spectrometry technology for drug discovery.

Among many other awards, Carol V. Robinson was awarded the Biemann Medal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in 2003, the Christian B. Anfinsen Award in 2014, the Thomson Medal Award in 2014, the Frank H. Field and Joe L. Franklin Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2018, and the Othmer Gold Medal in 2020. In 2013, she was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) and in 2017 she was elected a Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

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Selected Publications

• Structural insights into the lipid and ligand regulation of serotonin receptors,
  Peiyu Xu, Sijie Huang, Huibing Zhang, Chunyou Mao, X. Edward Zhou, Xi Cheng, Icaro A. Simon, Dan-Dan Shen, Hsin-Yung Yen, Carol V. Robinson, Kasper Harpsøe, Bo Svensson, Jia Guo, Hualiang Jiang, David E. Gloriam, Karsten Melcher, Yi Jiang, Yan Zhang, H. Eric Xu,
  Nature 2021.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03376-8
• Allosteric Inhibition of the SARS‐CoV‐2 Main Protease: Insights from Mass Spectrometry Based Assays,
  Tarick J. El‐Baba, Corinne A. Lutomski, Anastassia L. Kantsadi, Tika R. Malla, Tobias John, Victor Mikhailov, Jani R. Bolla, Christopher J. Schofield, Nicole Zitzmann, Ioannis Vakonakis, Carol V. Robinson,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202010316
• Direct observation of the influence of cardiolipin and antibiotics on lipid II binding to MurJ,
  J. R. Bolla, J. B. Sauer, D. Wu, S. Mehmood, T. M. Allison, C. V. Robinson,
  Nat. Chem, 2018, 10, 363–371.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2919
• Identifying key membrane protein lipid interactions using mass spectrometry,
  K. Gupta, J. Li, I. Liko, J. Gault, C. Bechara, D. Wu, J. T. S. Hopper, K. Giles, J. L. P. Benesch, C. V. Robinson.
  Nat. Protoc. 2018, (5), 1106–1120.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2018.014
• The role of interfacial lipids in stabilizing membrane protein oligomers,
  K. Gupta, J. A. Donlan, J. T. Hopper, P. Uzdavinys, M. Landreh, W. B.Struwe, D. Drew, A. J. Baldwin, P.J. Stansfeld, C.V. Robinson,
  Nature 2017, 541, 421–424.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20820
• Native Desorption Electrospray Ionization Liberates Soluble and Membrane Protein Complexes from Surfaces,
  S. Ambrose, N. G. Housden, K. Gupta, J. Fan, P. White, H-Y Yen, J. Marcoux, C. Kleanthous, J. T. S. Hopper and C. V. Robinson,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed Engl. 2017, 56(46), 14463–14468.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201704849
• Dimer interface of bovine cytochrome c oxidase is influenced by local posttranslational modifications and lipid binding,
  I. Liko, M. T. Degiacomi, S. Mohammed, S. Yoshikawa, C. Schmidt, C. V. Robinson.
  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2016, 113(29), 8230–8235.
  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1600354113
• Ion mobility–mass spectrometry analysis of large protein complexes,
  Brandon T Ruotolo, Justin L P Benesch, Alan M Sandercock, Suk-Joon Hyung, Carol V Robinson,
  Nature Protocols 2008, 3, 1139–1152.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2008.78
• Mechanism of auxin perception by the TIR1 ubiquitin ligase,
  Xu Tan, Luz Irina A. Calderon-Villalobos, Michal Sharon, Changxue Zheng, Carol V. Robinson, Mark Estelle, Ning Zheng,
  Nature 2007, 446, 640–645.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05731