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Robert Blake II, PhD

Professor of Biochemistry

Division of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dr. Blake earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from Ohio State University

in 1972 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1977.  After four years as a Post-doc at the University of Michigan,  he spent 2 years as a Research Scientist at Miles Laboratories in Elk-hart, IN.  Then Dr. Blake moved back into academics as an Assistant

and Associate Professor in the Biochemistry Department of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN.  After 10 years at Meharry, he moved to Xavier University College of Pharmacy in 1995, where he was promoted to the rank of Professor in due time.  Dr. Blake has

enjoyed continuous grant funding since 1984 and published 108 peer-reviewed papers. 

Education: 

B.S.  (Biochemistry)  Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1972

Ph.D.  (Biochemistry)  University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 1977

Postdoctoral (Biological Chemistry)  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1978-1981

Teaching Areas:  

PHSC 3810, Pharmacy Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

PHSC 3910, Medicinal Chemistry-Pharmacology I

Enzyme and chemical kinetics (not recently)

Research Interests:

Dr. Blake’s research interests focus on the proteins involved in aerobic respiration in extremophilic bacteria and on reliable methods to measure tight-binding interactions.  His most recent studies focus on the electron transfer reactions in intact cells that are accompanied by concomitant color changes in the electron transfer proteins.  His laboratory conducts these measurements by recording the in situ color changes in the intact organisms under physiological conditions.  This represents a whole new means to study entire biological systems that wasn't available until his laboratory commissioned a novel, custom-built instrument that permits accurate optical measurements in suspensions that scatter light.  This new methodology can be applied to any particulate suspension where color (or fluorescent) changes occur.   

Select Publications (from 108 total):  

Blake, II, R.C., Anthony, M.D., Bates, J.D., Hudson, T., Hunter, K.M., King, B.J., Landry, B.L., Lewis, M.S., and Painter, R.G. (2016)  In situ spectroscopy reveals that microorganisms in different phyla use different electron transfer biomolecules to respire aerobically on soluble iron.  Front. Microbiol. 7:1962 (9 pp.)

Li, TF, Painter, RG, Ban, B, and Blake, II, RC (2015) The multi-center aerobic iron respiratory chain of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans functions as an ensemble with a single macroscopic rate constant.  J. Biol. Chem. 290, 18293-18303

Blake, R.C., II, and Blake, D.A.  (2012)  ionization-ion mobility spectrometry identified monoclonal antibodies that bind exclusively to either the monomeric or a dimeric form of prostate specific antigen.  Anal. Chem. 84, 6899-6906 

Blake, II, R.C., Li, Xia, Yu, Haini, and Blake, D.A. (2007) Covalent and noncovalent modifications induce allosteric binding behavior in a monoclonal antibody.  Biochemistry 46, 1573-1586 

Ram, R.J., VerBerkmoes, N., Thelen, M.P., Tyson, G.W., Baker, B.J., Blake, II, R.C., Shah, M., Hettich, R., and Banfield, J.F. (2005) Community proteomics of a natural microbial biofilm. Science 308, 1915-1920