Dr. Powers is a student associate in the Biotechnology/Chemical practice group. He assists with a variety of client matters including intellectual property strategy, evaluating patent portfolios and drafting patent applications. He also assists with the preparation of invalidity, non-infringement, and freedom-to-operate opinions, as well as with the firm's interference practice. Dr. Powers has significant experience in the fields of aging, surgery, stem cell biology, microbiology, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology and biotechnology.
Dr. Powers' technical expertise includes engineering of yeast and bacteria biosynthetic and signaling pathways, protein engineering and mutant screening. Dr. Powers is currently responsible for preparing and prosecuting applications directed to bioprocessing and the production of biofuels. He also conducts patentability and validity analyses in these fields.
Dr. Powers earned his Ph.D. in Dr. Stanley Fields' Laboratory at the University of Washington. There, he developed high-throughput assays for measuring the life span of eukaryotic cells. Screens carried out using these methods led Dr. Powers and his colleagues to discover that reduction in TOR pathway signaling is one mechanism by which caloric restriction extends life span. These findings were published in the journals Science and Genes and Development and led to a patent application that is currently pending. Ongoing work in several labs is testing Dr. Powers' findings to see if similar interventions can extend life span in mice.
Technical Publications
DeVit, M and Powers, R.W. New genetic strategies for protein discovery based on whole genome sequences. Drug Discovery Today (2003)
Kaeberlein, M., Powers, R. W., Steffen, K. K., Westman, E. A., Hu, D., Dang, N., Kerr, E. O., Kirkland, K. T., Fields, S., and Kennedy, B. K. Regulation of yeast replicative life span by Tor and Sch9 in response to nutrients. Science (2005) 310, 1193-1196.
Powers, R. W., Kaeberlein, M., Caldwell, S. D., Kennedy, B. K., Fields, S. Extension of yeast chronological life span by reduced Tor activity. Genes Dev. (2006) 20, 174-84.
Powers, R.W., Harrison, D.E., Flurkey, K. Pituitary removal in adult mice increases life span. Mech Ageing and Dev. (2006) 127, 658-659
Preston W. Estep III, Matt Kaeberlein, Pankaj Kapahi, Brian K. Kennedy, Gordon J. Lithgow, George M. Martin, Simon Melov, R. Wilson Powers III and Heidi A. Tissenbaum, Life-Extension Pseudoscience and the SENS Plan. MIT Technology Review,(2006) 109, 80-84
Kaeberlein M. and Powers R.W. Sir2 and calorie restriction in yeast: a skeptical perspective. Ageing Res Rev. (2007) 6, 128-140
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