Kevin M. Weeks
Comment: Far too many of the sources do not verify the text they are attached to. Ldm1954 (talk) 17:51, 27 October 2026 (UTC)
| Kevin M. Weeks | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🏳️ Citizenship | American |
| 🏫 Education | College of Wooster (BA) Yale University (PhD) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | RNA structure analysis SHAPE chemical probing SHAPE-MaP |
| 🏅 Awards | Fulbright Scholar (1986–1987) Searle Scholar (1998) NSF CAREER Award Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012) |
Kevin M. Weeks is an American chemist and academic. He is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).[1] His laboratory has developed chemical probing methods for analyzing RNA structure and dynamics, including selective 2′-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE), SHAPE-MaP, DMS-MaP, and single-molecule correlated chemical probing (smCCP).[2][3]
He was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012.[1]
Education and career
Weeks received a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from the College of Wooster in 1986.[4] He was a Fulbright Scholar in chemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany from 1986 to 1987. He earned a PhD in biophysical chemistry from Yale University in 1992, where he worked under chemist Donald Crothers.[5]
From 1992 to 1995, Weeks was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he worked with Thomas Cech.[6] He joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996 and has remained in its Department of Chemistry.[5]
Research
Weeks' research uses chemical and biophysical methods to investigate how RNA structure contributes to biological function.[7] His laboratory has developed experimental approaches that allow RNA structure to be measured at high resolution and applied these methods to large and biologically complex RNA molecules.[2]
Weeks developed SHAPE chemistry, a technology for probing RNA structure through the chemical reactivity of the ribose 2′-hydroxyl group.[8] The method was deployed for quantitative analysis of RNA structure at single-nucleotide resolution.[3] SHAPE has been used to obtain structural information from RNAs that are difficult to study using conventional structural biology methods.[9] These technologies have been applied to the study of RNAs, including investigations of RNA biology, the development of mRNA medicines, and the characterization of RNA small molecule interactions in RNA targeted therapeutics.[2][10][11][12]
In 2014, Weeks and collaborators reported single-molecule correlated chemical probing, a method for identifying correlated structural changes within RNA molecules.[13] The Weeks laboratory has also developed methods for examining RNA–protein networks.[14]
A 2018 study by Weeks and collaborators reported pervasive tertiary structure within the dengue virus RNA genome and investigated relationships between RNA structure and viral genome function.[15] His group has also investigated RNA structure as a regulator of gene expression.[16] Work using high-resolution SHAPE probing demonstrated widespread regulatory roles for messenger RNA structure, while later studies examined RNA structural changes in living cells and RNA–protein interactions.[17]
His laboratory and collaborators have developed chemical and computational approaches for identifying RNA ligand-binding sites and have investigated fragment-based approaches to RNA ligand discovery.[18] In 2025, Weeks and collaborators reported a computational strategy for identifying potential ligand-binding pockets in RNA structures. The study combined computational pocket detection with experimental approaches to RNA ligand discovery.[19]
Honors and awards
He was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012.[1][5]
Weeks has also received a Creativity Award from BASF and an iDEA-TECH Award from Sanofi in connection with his research on RNA-targeted drug discovery.[5][20]
He has been recognized as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors.[21]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Kevin M. Weeks". UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Retrieved 28 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Weeks, Kevin M. (2021-05-18). "SHAPE Directed Discovery of New Functions in Large RNAs". Accounts of Chemical Research. 54 (10): 2502–2517. doi:10.1021/acs.accounts.1c00118. ISSN 0001-4842. PMC 8168592 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 33960770 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wilkinson, Kevin A.; Merino, Edward J.; Weeks, Kevin M. (2006). "Selective 2′-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE): quantitative RNA structure analysis at single nucleotide resolution". Nature Protocols. Nature Publishing Group. 1 (3): 1610–1616. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.249. ISSN 1750-2799.
- ↑ "Kevin Weeks". Department of Chemistry. Retrieved 2026-10-23.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "Dr. Weeks". Weeks Laboratory, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 28 September 2026.
- ↑ Jones, Calley (2026-10-22). "Kevin Weeks receives Keck Award to explore 3D RNA structures". College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2026-10-23.
- ↑ "Kevin Weeks CV" (PDF). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- ↑ Deigan, Katherine E.; Li, Tian W.; Mathews, David H.; Weeks, Kevin M. (2009-01-06). "Accurate SHAPE-directed RNA structure determination". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (1): 97–102. doi:10.1073/pnas.0806929106. PMC 2629221. PMID 19109441.
- ↑ Smola, Matthew J.; Weeks, Kevin M. (2018). "In-cell RNA structure probing with SHAPE-MaP". Nature Protocols. Nature Publishing Group. 13 (6): 1181–1195. doi:10.1038/nprot.2018.010. ISSN 1750-2799. PMC 6402486. PMID 29725122.
- ↑ "PubMed record 38030688". PubMed. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Warner, Katherine Deigan; Hajdin, Christine E.; Weeks, Kevin M. (2018). "Principles for targeting RNA with drug-like small molecules". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Nature Publishing Group. 17 (8): 547–558. doi:10.1038/nrd.2018.93. ISSN 1474-1784. PMC 6420209. PMID 29977051.
- ↑ "Targeting RNA with small molecules". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Homan, Philip J.; Favorov, Oleg V.; Lavender, Christopher A.; Kursun, Olcay; Ge, Xiyuan; Busan, Steven; Dokholyan, Nikolay V.; Weeks, Kevin M. (2014-09-23). "Single-molecule correlated chemical probing of RNA". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (38): 13858–13863. doi:10.1073/pnas.1407306111. PMC 4183288. PMID 25205807.
- ↑ Lyu, Liyang; Feng, Ye; Chen, Xin; Hu, Yuanjia (2020). "The global chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy patent landscape". Nature Biotechnology. Nature Publishing Group. 38 (12): 1387–1394. doi:10.1038/s41587-020-00749-8. ISSN 1546-1696.
- ↑ Dethoff, Elizabeth A.; Boerneke, Mark A.; Gokhale, Nandan S.; Muhire, Brejnev M.; Martin, Darren P.; Sacco, Matthew T.; McFadden, Michael J.; Weinstein, Jules B.; Messer, William B.; Horner, Stacy M.; Weeks, Kevin M. (2018-10-19). "Pervasive tertiary structure in the dengue virus RNA genome". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (45): 11513–11518. doi:10.1073/pnas.1716689115. ISSN 0027-8424.
- ↑ misciwriterseditors (2021-03-26). "Dr. Kevin Weeks: a MaP of RNA structural landscapes". Retrieved 2026-10-23.
- ↑ Mitchell, Thomas J.; Turajlic, Samra; Rowan, Andrew; Nicol, David; Farmery, James H.R.; O’Brien, Tim; Martincorena, Inigo; Tarpey, Patrick; Angelopoulos, Nicos; Yates, Lucy R.; Butler, Adam P.; Raine, Keiran; Stewart, Grant D.; Challacombe, Ben; Fernando, Archana (2018). "Timing the Landmark Events in the Evolution of Clear Cell Renal Cell Cancer: TRACERx Renal". Cell. 173 (3): 611–623.e17. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.02.020. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 5927631. PMID 29656891.
- ↑ Zeller, Meredith J.; Favorov, Oleg; Li, Kelin; Nuthanakanti, Ashok; Hussein, Dina; Michaud, Auréliane; Lafontaine, Daniel A.; Busan, Steven; Serganov, Alexander; Aubé, Jeffrey; Weeks, Kevin M. (2022-05-17). "SHAPE-enabled fragment-based ligand discovery for RNA". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (20). doi:10.1073/pnas.2122660119. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 9171761 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 35561226 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Veenbaas, Seth D.; Koehn, Jordan T.; Irving, Patrick S.; Lama, Nicole N.; Weeks, Kevin M. (2025-04-29). "Ligand-binding pockets in RNA and where to find them". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 122 (17): e2422346122. doi:10.1073/pnas.2422346122. PMC 12054788 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 40261926 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ "iDEA-TECH Awards". Sanofi. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Jones, Calley (2026-03-04). "Kevin Weeks named Senior Member of National Academy of Inventors". College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2026-10-23.
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