Gregory Raner, Ph.D.

Professor of Chemistry

Center for Natural Sciences, Room 152
(434) 582-7628

Education

Post-Doctoral Training, The University of Michigan Medical School
Ph.D., The University of Utah
M.S., Syracuse University
B.S., LeMoyne College

Biography

Dr. Raner taught in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro for 19 years before coming to Liberty University. While there he developed an active research program aimed at understanding underlying biochemical mechanisms related to Drug-Herb interactions, chemical toxicologies and medical uses of natural products.

Courses Taught

BCHM 451 – Biochemistry I
BCHM 450 – Medical Biochemistry
BCHM 551 – Graduate Biochemistry
CHEM 301L – Organic I Lab
CHEM 302L – Organic II Lab

Research Interests

The first involves the evaluation of a variety of natural products (herbal medicines, essential oils, etc.) for potential health-promoting activities, or possible adverse effects when consumed with pharmaceutical drugs. Specifically, students learn how to culture human liver cells in the lab and evaluate specific biochemical markers associated with positive health effects, such as anti-oxidant action or chemo-preventive properties. High throughput enzymatic assays using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) or 96-well formatted fluorescence or luminescence kinetic assays are the primary tools associated with the project.

A second broad area of research is aimed at identifying novel peroxidase activities associated with a variety of different plant sources. The long-term objectives are to establish a library consisting of hundreds of crude plant samples and characterizing their peroxidase activities with regard to their abundance, stability and potential for use in biotechnological applications. Currently, the prototypical member of this family, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), is used for hundreds of applications, including large-scale biocatalysis, biomedical diagnostics (ELISA, western blotting etc..), biosensor technology, water treatment and a host of others. Limitations related to HRP in terms of stability, sensitivity to harsh conditions and non-selective activity suggest that a library of the type being developed would have great potential value in improving current applications and in the development of novel applications for this class of enzymes.

Professional Memberships

American Chemical Society
VA Academy of Sciences
American Society of Pharmacognosy

Publications

Bryson, D, Lim, P.L., Lawson, A., Manjunath, S., and Raner, G.M. Isotopic labeling of the heme cofactor in cytochrome P450 and other heme proteins. Biotechnol. Lett. 33(10):2019-26 (2010)
Harkey, A., Kim, H.-J., Kandagatla, S. and Raner, G.M. Defluorination of 4-fluorophenol by Cytochrome P450BM3-F87G: Activation by long Chain Fatty Aldehydes. Biotechnol. Lett. 34:1725-1731 (2012)
Sumithran, S., Sono, M., Raner, G.M., Dawson, J.H. Single turnover studies of oxidative halophenol dehalogenation by horseradish peroxidase reveal a mechanism involving two consecutive one electron steps: toward a functional halophenol bioremediation catalyst. J. Inorg. Biochem. 117:316-321(2012).
Raner, G. M. “Effects of Green Tea Extract on Gene Expression in Human Hepatoma (HepG2) and Tongue Carcinoma (Cal-27) Cells”, in Tea in Health and Disease Prevention. (Elsevier Press, Ed., Victor Preedy, 2012).
Kandagatla S.K., Mack, T., Simpson, S., Sollenberger, J., Helton, E., and Raner, G.M., Inhibition of human Cytochrome P450 2E1 and 2A6 by aldehydes: Structure and activity relationships, Chem-Biol Interact. 219:195-202 (2014).
Badal, S. A. M., Asuncion Valenzuela, M. M., Zylstra, D., Huang, G., Vendantam, P., Francis, S., Quitugua, A., Amis, L. H., Davis, W., Tzeng, T.-R. J., Jacobs, H., Gangemi, D. J., Raner, G., Rowland, L., Wooten, J., Campbell, P., Brantley, E., and Delgoda, R. (2017) Glaucarubulone glucoside from Castela macrophylla suppresses MCF-7 breast cancer cell growth and attenuates benzo[a]pyrene-mediated CYP1A gene induction. J. Appl. Toxicol. 7:873-883 (2017).
Ledford C, McMahon M, Whitesell A, Khan G, Kandagatla SK, Hurst DP, Reggio PH, Raner GM. A dual substrate kinetic model for cytochrome P450(BM3)-F87G catalysis: simultaneous binding of long-chain aldehydes and 4-fluorophenol. Biotechnol Lett. Feb;39(2):311-321 (2017).
Roberts, C.E., Raner, G.M., Isaacs, G.D. High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Separation of Epigenetic Cytosine Variants, Methods and Protoc. 1, 10 (2018).