Richard A. Houghten

Richard A. Houghten is a molecular biologist and founder of the journal "Peptide Research", which was later merged with the "International Journal of Peptide and Protein Research," to become the "Journal of Peptide Research". His work mainly concerns peptide activity and pharmacology. [

cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
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title = Richard A. Houghten Biography
work =
publisher = TPIMS
date = 2008
url = http://www.tpims.org/scientists_richard-houghten.asp
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accessdate = 2008-06-29

] He is the founder and president of the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies (TPIMS), a biomedical research institute. Houghten pioneered the "tea-bag" approach of producing peptides for pharmacological work.cite news
last = Fischer
first = Lawrence
coauthors =
title = New Drugs by Process of Elimination
work = New York Times
pages =
language =
publisher =
date = 1992-10-06
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2D8153EF935A35753C1A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
accessdate = 2008-06-29

] He is author of over five-hundred scientific papers, 38 of which have been cited at least one hundred times. His h-index is over 60.

Biography

Houghten received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. He had previously received a BS in chemistry from California State University, Fresno and an M.S. in Chemistry from Berkeley. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, then an assistant professorhip at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University of New York, and then joined the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, working with Richard Lerner. Houghten branched out to the business world in the 1980s, forming Multiple Peptide Systems in 1986, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies (TPIMS) in 1988 and Houghten Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 1990. [cite web
last =
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title = Management biographies
work = Mixture Science Incorporated
publisher =
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url = http://www.mixturesciences.com/Company/Board.htm
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accessdate = 2008-06-29] [cite web
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title = 2003 ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE
work = Lyles Center
publisher = California State University, Fresno
date =
url = http://www.lylescenter.com/individual_entrepreneur_in_residence.php?entrepreneur=2
format =
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accessdate = 2008-06-29]

Awards

* Vincent du Vigneaud Award for Excellence in Peptide Science (2000) [http://www.americanpeptidesociety.org/pages/awards.asp]
* American Chemical Society's Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry (2004) [https://portal.acs.org/preview/appmanager/corg/memberapp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_ARTICLEMAIN&node_id=1319&content_id=CTP_004547&use_sec=true&sec_url_var=region1]
* Bruce Merrifield Award (2005) [http://www.americanpeptidesociety.org/pages/awards.asp]
* Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2006) [http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/about/press/NewsEntry/PressReleaseView.asp?ID=141]

Work in combinatorial biology

Combinatorial biology is the generation of large numbers of molecules (usually peptides, enzymes or other polypeptides in biology) with non-natural metabolic pathways. The resulting set of molecules is referred to as a library. [

cite book
last = Nill
first = Kimball R.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Glossary of Biotechnological Terms
publisher = CRC Press
date = 2002
location =
pages = 55
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=gRUywB1cqAEC
doi =
id =
isbn = 1587161222

] Because traditional methods of chemical discovery and selection relied on "natural" pathways (those formed by sources found in the wild and brought into the library), creation of the requisite number of peptides for new drug discovery was impractical. New drugs needed to be built from specific combinations of proteins among the trillions of possible combinations. Synthetic avenues for peptide generation became an important venue for drug creation in the 1980s. [

cite book
last = Seethala,
first = Ramakrishna
authorlink =
coauthors = Fernandes, Prabhavathi B.
title = Handbook of Drug Screening
publisher = Informa Health Care
date = 2001
location =
pages = 357-383
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=ouOK009WwykC
doi =
id =
isbn = 0824705629

]

In 1985, Houghten's most cited paper (cited 650 times, according to Scopus) published his method for the synthesis of massive numbers of peptides--enough for practical use in pharmacological work--in the the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [

cite journal
last = Houghten
first = Richard A.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = General Method for the Rapid Solid-Phase Synthesis of Large Numbers of Peptides: Specificity of Antigen--Antibody Interaction at the Level of Individual Amino Acids
journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
volume = 82
issue = 15
pages = 5131-5135
publisher = United States National Academy of Sciences
location =
date = August 1, 1985
url = http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/82/15/5131?ck=nck
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2008-06-29

] This method was referred to as the "tea-bag" method because the peptides enclosed in mesh bags and dipped quickly into liquid solutions containing bacteria or virus cells. The peptides which prove most capable of binding to cells are retained and the process is repeated until a single peptide strain is selected. This allowed " [the capture of] information in a day that you couldn't get in a hundred years before" according to Houghten.cite news
last = Fischer
first = Lawrence
coauthors =
title = New Drugs by Process of Elimination
work = New York Times
pages =
language =
publisher =
date = 1992-10-06
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2D8153EF935A35753C1A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
accessdate = 2008-06-29

]

The problem of generating and sequencing large libraries of peptides suitable for pharmaceutical work remained. Selection and identification of specific desired molecular traits (e.g. antigen response, antimicrobial response) required a selection algorithm and process. In 1991, he and his colleagues published one of the major papers in combinatorial biology--the paper described a method to generate peptides capturable to contemporary protein microarrays through the creation of synthetic peptide combinatorial libraries (SPCL). [

cite journal
last = Houghten
first = R.A.
authorlink = Richard A. Houghten
coauthors = Pinilla, Clemencia; Blondelle, Sylvie E.; Appel, Jon R.; Dooley, Colette T. & Cuervo, Julio H.
title = Generation and use of synthetic peptide combinatorial libraries for basic research and drug discovery
journal = Nature
volume = 354
issue =
pages = 84 - 86
publisher =
location =
date = 07 November 1991
url = http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v354/n6348/pdf/354084a0.pdf
doi = 10.1038/354084a0
id =
accessdate = 2008-07-02

] Houghten continued his work in combinatorial biology with an article in "Methods", the journals section of Methods in Enzymology. which is the standard multi-volume references set for biochemical methodology in research. [

cite journal
last = Houghten
first = Richard A.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Soluble combinatorial libraries: Extending the range and repertoire of chemical diversity.
journal = Methods
volume = 6
issue =
pages = 354-360
publisher =
location =
date = 1994
url = http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do?UIN=025625572&ETOC=EN&from=searchengine
doi =
id =
accessdate =

] [cite web
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authorlink =
coauthors =
title = "Classical" Papers in Molecular Diversity and Solid Phase Synthesis
work =
publisher = CSPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc
date =
url = http://www.5z.com/divinfo/classics
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-06-28

]

Notes