Explore the World of Vaults

 

The Rome Lab at UCLA

 

 

 

The Laboratory of Leonard Rome at UCLA was established in 1979. Since 1986, the Rome laboratory has been studying a novel cellular organelle called a "vault", Vaults were first described (discovered) by Rome and his a former postdoc, Nancy Kedersha, in 1986. Over three-times the size of a ribosome, vaults are the largest cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein particles known. They are ubiquitous cell structures that have been conserved throughout evolution and are found in phylogeny as diverse as mammals, avians, amphibians, and even primitive eukaryotes like slime mold and amoeba. The particle is thought to carry out a basic cellular function, however, the precise function remains unknown. Currently Professor Rome manages a research laboratory in the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA that is  focused on engineering the vault particle as flexible nano-scale capsules for a wide variety of applications from immune oncology to vaccine development to enzyme bioreactors for environmental remediation. 

Who is Leonard Rome?

 

Leonard H. Rome, Ph.D. is a cell biologist and biochemist who has been a faculty member of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA since he joined the Department of Biological Chemistry in 1979. He became a full professor in 1988 and served as the Senior Associate Dean for Research in the School of Medicine from 1997 to 2012. He has been an Associate Director of the CNSI since 2004 and was Interim Director from 2007-2009. In addition, he served from 2001 to 2005 as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for the Life and Health Sciences. Professor Rome earned his B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Professor Rome is currently Distinguished Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Associate Director, California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), in addition he is also the co-founder of Vault Pharma Inc., a startup company that uses the human vault particle to deliver peptide payloads for unique immune signaling.

 

 

Publications

A complete list of Professor Rome's publications are here.

 

Vault Pharma

The Vault Pharma website is here.

 

Vault Collaborations active in 2024

 

Shaily Mahendra, Ph.D. Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Samuelli School of Engineering, UCLA.

https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/shaily-mahendra/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaily_Mahendra


Steven M. Dubinett, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Dean, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

https://www.uclahealth.org/discover-ucla-health/about/leadership/steven-m-dubinett


Z. Hong Zhou, Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, UCLA

https://www.mimg.ucla.edu/people/z-hong-zhou-ph-d/


The Lice Vault Group, Directed by Michael Dondrup, Ph.D. Researcher, The Sea Lice Research Centre, University of Bergen, Norway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzpmx9j4CK0


David T. Curiel, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.

https://profiles.wustl.edu/en/persons/david-curiel


Previous Vault Collaborators at UCLA:

 

Bruce Dunn, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Harold Monbouquette, Ph.D., Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Jeffrey Zink, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Joseph Loo, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Biological Chemistry

David Eisenberg, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Biological Chemistry

Heather Maynard, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Kathleen Kelly, Ph.D., Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine

Sarah Tolbert, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Peter Anton, M.D., Professor of Medicine

Timothy J. Deming, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Paul Krogstad, M.D. Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology

Sherven Sharma, Ph.D. WLA, VA

James Wohlschegel, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry

Isaac Yang, M.D., Professor of Head and Neck Surgery

Otto Yang, M.D., Professor, Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics

Jerome A. Zack, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Department Chair, and Co-Director of UCLA AIDS Institute

Jeff F. Miller, Ph.D., Professor, Director of the CNSI; Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences

 

Previous Vault Researchers Worldwide:

 

Nancy Kedersha, Ph.D. - Boston, MA

John Heuser, Ph.D. – Washington University, St. Louis

Phoebe L. Stewart, Ph.D. - Case Western Reserve University

George Scheffer - Amsterdam, Netherlands

Rik Scheper, Ph.D. - Amsterdam, Netherlands

Kathy Suprenant, Ph.D. - Lawrence, Kansas

Walter Volknandt, Ph.D. - Frankfurt Am, Germany

Erik Wiemer, Ph.D. - Rotterdam, Netherlands

Lea Harrington, Ph.D. - Toronto, Canada

Robert Moore, Ph.D. - Indianapolis, IN

Deborah Johnson, Ph.D. - Los Angeles, CA

Murray Robinson, Ph.D. – Boston, MA

David M. Ojcius, Ph.D. – UC Merced

George Buchman, Ph.D.

Robert J. Coffey, M.D. - Vanderbilt

Michael M. Meijler, Ph.D. – Ben Gurion University of the Negev

C. Todd French, Ph.D. - Northern Arizona University

Glen R. Nemerow, Ph.D. – Scripps Research Institute

Paul Wender, Ph.D. - Stanford University

Subbu Venkatraman, Ph.D. - UC San Diego

Freddy Boey, Ph.D. - NUS, Singapore

Sierin Lim, Ph.D. - NTU, Singapore

Hideki Tanaka, Ph.D. - Okayama University Japan

Acknowledgements - The Rome Laboratory is grateful for the research support from the following organizations:

NIH (NIGMS, NCI), NSF, Jonnson Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Harold G. and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation, The Oxnard Foundation, UC Discovery, UCLA Spore in Prostate Cancer, UCLA Center for AIDS Research, Vault Pharma