Read was educated at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 followed by a PhD in 1986[1] for X-ray crystallography of serine proteases and their protein inhibitors supervised by Michael N. G. James.[7][8]
Following his PhD, Read was appointed assistant professor from 1988 to 1993 and associate professor from 1993 to 1998 at the University of Alberta.[1] As of 2017[update], Read's research interests are in protein crystallography and maximum likelihood estimation.[6] His research has been published in leading peer reviewed scientific journals including Nature,[13][14][15] Science,[16] the Journal of Applied Crystallography[2] Acta Crystallographica,[4][17][18] Structure,[19][20] PNAS,[21] the Journal of Molecular Biology[22][23] and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.[24]
Awards and honours
Read was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014. His nomination reads:
Professor Read is known internationally for his outstanding and fundamental contributions to the development of macromolecular crystallographic software. His application of maximum likelihood based algorithms to the solution of macromolecular crystal structures by molecular replacement (a technique that uses a known structure of a homologue to solve an unknown structure) has resulted in software (Phaser) that is foremost in the field. He also devised and demonstrated an improved likelihood target function for model refinement that has been adopted by all major refinement programs. In addition, Professor Read has led structural work that has made significant contributions to understanding the mechanisms of proteins relevant to disease (bacterial toxins and serpins).[9]
Adams, P. D.; Grosse-Kunstleve, R. W.; Hung, L. W.; Ioerger, T. R.; McCoy, A. J.; Moriarty, N. W.; Read, R. J.; Sacchettini, J. C.; Sauter, N. K.; Terwilliger, T. C. (2002). "PHENIX: Building new software for automated crystallographic structure determination". Acta Crystallographica Section D. 58 (11): 1948–1954. Bibcode:2002AcCrD..58.1948A. doi:10.1107/S0907444902016657. hdl:1969.1/180215. PMID 12393927. Adams, P. D.; Afonine, P. V.; Bunkóczi, G. B.; Chen, V. B.; Davis, I. W.; Echols, N.; Headd, J. J.; Hung, L. W.; Kapral, G. J.; Grosse-Kunstleve, R. W.; McCoy, A. J.; Moriarty, N. W.; Oeffner, R.; Read, R. J.; Richardson, D. C.; Richardson, J. S.; Terwilliger, T. C.; Zwart, P. H. (2010). "PHENIX: A comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution". Acta Crystallographica Section D. 66 (2): 213–21. Bibcode:2010AcCrD..66..213A. doi:10.1107/S0907444909052925. PMC 2815670. PMID 20124702. Liebschner, Dorothee; Afonine, Pavel V.; Baker, Matthew L.; Bunkóczi, Gábor; Chen, Vincent B.; Croll, Tristan I.; Hintze, Bradley; Hung, Li-Wei; Jain, Swati; McCoy, Airlie J.; Moriarty, Nigel W.; Oeffner, Robert D.; Poon, Billy K.; Prisant, Michael G.; Read, Randy J. (1 October 2019). "Macromolecular structure determination using X-rays, neutrons and electrons: recent developments in Phenix". Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology. 75 (10): 861–877. Bibcode:2019AcCrD..75..861L. doi:10.1107/S2059798319011471. ISSN 2059-7983. PMC 6778852. PMID 31588918. Randy Read publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required) Dimaio, F.; Terwilliger, T. C.; Read, R. J.; Wlodawer, A.; Oberdorfer, G.; Wagner, U.; Valkov, E.; Alon, A.; Fass, D.; Axelrod, H. L.; Das, D.; Vorobiev, S. M.; Iwaï, H.; Pokkuluri, P. R.; Baker, D. (2011). "Improved molecular replacement by density- and energy-guided protein structure optimization". Nature. 473 (7348): 540–3. Bibcode:2011Natur.473..540D. doi:10.1038/nature09964. PMC 3365536. PMID 21532589. Jackson, R. N.; Golden, S. M.; Van Erp, P. B.; Carter, J; Westra, E. R.; Brouns, S. J.; Van Der Oost, J; Terwilliger, T. C.; Read, R. J.; Wiedenheft, B (2014). "Structural biology. Crystal structure of the CRISPR RNA-guided surveillance complex from Escherichia coli". Science. 345 (6203): 1473–9. doi:10.1126/science.1256328. PMC 4188430. PMID 25103409. Brünger, A. T.; Adams, P. D.; Clore, G. M.; Delano, W. L.; Gros, P.; Grosse-Kunstleve, R. W.; Jiang, J. S.; Kuszewski, J.; Nilges, M.; Pannu, N. S.; Read, R. J.; Rice, L. M.; Simonson, T.; Warren, G. L. (1998). "Crystallography & NMR System: A New Software Suite for Macromolecular Structure Determination". Acta Crystallographica Section D. 54 (5): 905–21. Bibcode:1998AcCrD..54..905B. doi:10.1107/S0907444998003254. PMID 9757107. S2CID 33910776. Read, R. J.; Adams, P. D.; Arendall Wb, 3rd; Brunger, A. T.; Emsley, P; Joosten, R. P.; Kleywegt, G. J.; Krissinel, E. B.; Lütteke, T; Otwinowski, Z; Perrakis, A; Richardson, J. S.; Sheffler, W. H.; Smith, J. L.; Tickle, I. J.; Vriend, G; Zwart, P. H. (2011). "A new generation of crystallographic validation tools for the protein data bank". Structure. 19 (10): 1395–412. doi:10.1016/j.str.2011.08.006. PMC 3195755. PMID 22000512.{{cite journal}}
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