Robert Shapiro Professor Emeritus of Chemistry B.S., City College of New York; Ph.D., Harvard University; Postdoctoral training, Cambridge University Email: rs2@nyu.edu Phone:  212-998-8484 Personal Homepage:  http://www.robertshapiro.org

Areas of Research/Interest: Organic and bioorganic chemistry: effects of mutagens on the structure and function of nucleic acids; origins of life

Research Description: The interaction of carcinogen-modified DNA with repair enzymes and DNA polymerases is explored using computational methods including molecular dynamics. This research is carried out in collaboration with Professor Suse Broyde (Biology) and is funded by the National Cancer Institute. The underlying question concerns the reasons why certain chemicals can cause mutations and initiate the process of carcinogenesis when they bind to DNA, while closely related ones are harmless. The chemicals that we study are usually bulky ones, containing multiple aromatic rings. In another effort, I am attempting to further our understanding of the mechanism involved in the origin of life. I utilize data produced by others to critize currently popular theories, such as “RNA-first,” and to develop alternatives, particularly ones that would make life’s origin a common, rather than a rare event.

Select Publications:

Shapiro, R (2006) “Small Molecule Interactions Were Central to the Origin of Life” Quarterly Review of Biology, 81, 105-125.

Jia, L., Shafirovich, V., Shapiro, R,  Geacintov, N. E. and Broyde, S. (2006) Flexible 5-Guanidino-4-nitroimidazole DNA Lesions: Structures and Thermodynamics. Biochemistry 45,6644-6655.

Ding, S., Shapiro, R., Geacintov, N. E. and Broyde, S. (2007)  4-Hydroxyequilenin-Adenine Lesions in DNA Duplexes: Stereochemistry, Damage Site, and Structure. Biochemistry 46, 182-191.

Shapiro, R. (2007) “A Simpler Origin for Life”, Scientific American, 296, June, 46-53.

Shapiro, R (2007). “The Origin of Life: Crucial Issues”  in Baross, J.A and Sullivan, W.T, eds, “Planets and Life: The Emerging Science of Astrobiology”  Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 132-153.

Fellowships/Honors: 2004 Trotter Prize in Information, Complexity and Inference, National Institutes of Health Career Development Award