Gabriele Varani is a Professor of Biochemistry and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle. Raised in Italy, he received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees in physics from the Universita’ di Milano with Giancarlo Baldini while studying optical properties of small molecule binding to DNA.
He moved to the Bay Area and completed post-doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of Ignacio Tinoco, Jr. It was here that he began working on RNA structural biology. With three graduate students in the laboratory (Puglisi, Wyatt and Wimberly) he developed techniques to prepare the large amounts of RNA required for structural characterization using biochemical methods, and found a way to apply NMR techniques that had previously been developed for proteins to RNA.
In 1992 he left Berkeley to take on a tenure-track faculty position at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He started an independent research group at the MRC, where he developed and applied new biochemical methods of RNA preparation and characterization, as well as spectroscopic and computational studies leading to the first truly high resolution NMR structure of an RNA using new isotope labeling techniques (JMB 1995; PNAS 1999). In 1996 he was awarded a tenure position, and he continued there until 2001.
The work undertaken at the NMR provided the foundation for a commercial activity. In 1997 he and Jon Karn founded Ribotargets Ltd. with venture capital support from Apax Partners and others. The goal of the company was to develop new small molecules that bind viral RNAs (HIV and Hepatitis C) and inhibit viral replication, and to find new inhibitors of protein synthesis that bind ribosomal RNA (about 40% of all existing antibiotics are ribosomal RNA inhibitors). The company now employs approximately 100 scientists and is located in Cambridge, England.
In September 2001 he moved from Cambridge to the University of Washington. His research interests continue to be largely focused on the use of NMR spectroscopy to elucidate the structure and the dynamics of protein-RNA complexes. In addition, he is interested in the rational, structure-based design of protein and small molecules that target RNA and interfere with gene expression and with the replication of pathogenic viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C. In particular, a new research interest is the role of motion in molecular recognition (currently being studied in conjunction with Dr. Gary Drobny) and its exploitation in protein (with Dr. David Baker in the Biochemistry Department) and small molecule design.