Regular biography
Matthew D. Shoulders is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on understanding how cells fold proteins and developing next-generation protein engineering and directed evolution techniques to address biotechnology challenges. His work explores the role of protein misfolding and aggregation in diseases of the extracellular matrix, particularly collagenopathies, and investigates how chaperones and quality control mechanisms influence client proteins, including oncogenes and RNA viruses. Additionally, his laboratory invents in vivo directed evolution strategies to create valuable biotechnologies, with applications ranging from genome targeting agents to enzymes for biological carbon capture.