Jay T. Groves

About

Jay T. Groves is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, affiliated with the College of Chemistry. He received his B.S. degree in Physics and Chemistry from Tufts University and completed his Ph.D. in Biophysics at Stanford University under Professors Steven Boxer and Harden McConnell. His early research included a visiting scholar position at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, and a fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Physical Biosciences Division. He joined UC Berkeley's Chemistry Department in 2001, progressing from Assistant Professor to full Professor by 2010, and was appointed as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2008. Professor Groves' research focuses on physical chemistry in living systems, particularly the role of spatial organization in biochemical reaction systems. His work explores how spatial patterns influence signal transduction processes at the cell membrane, employing techniques in optical microscopy, spectroscopy, materials fabrication, and cell biology. His integrated approach enables the direct observation and physical manipulation of living reaction systems at the single-molecule level. His overarching goal is to develop a quantitative and mechanistic understanding of biochemical processes in living systems, rooted in physics and physical chemistry.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Thermodynamics
• Organic chemistry
• Materials science
• Cell biology
• Biophysics

Selected publications

• Coupled membrane lipid miscibility and phosphotyrosine-driven protein condensation phase transitions

  Biophysical Journal · 2020 · 75 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Raf promotes dimerization of the Ras G-domain with increased allosteric connections

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 56 citations

  Ras dimerization is critical for Raf activation. Here we show that the Ras binding domain of Raf (Raf-RBD) induces robust Ras dimerization at low surface densities on supported lipid bilayers and, to a lesser extent, in solution as observed by size exclusion chromatography and confirmed by SAXS. Community network analysis based on molecular dynamics simulations shows robust allosteric connections linking the two Raf-RBD D113 residues located in the Galectin scaffold protein binding site of each…

  DOI

• Proofreading and single-molecule sensitivity in T cell receptor signaling by condensate nucleation

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-05-30 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  T cells display the remarkable ability to detect single foreign peptides displayed on target cells, while ignoring highly abundant self-peptides. This selectivity has been explained by kinetic proofreading in the T cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathway, which prevents responses to short-lived binding events regardless of their abundance. However, the biochemical mechanisms that drive kinetic proofreading have remained unclear. Here, using computational modeling, we show that these key signaling…

  PublisherDOI

• Parallel reactions on a single T cell receptor offer a robust kinetic proofreading mechanism

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-09-29 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  T cells can recognize a few molecules of cognate antigen among vastly outnumbering noncognate ligands. The T cell receptor (TCR) differentiates antigens based on antigen-TCR binding dwell time through a kinetic proofreading process. Historically, this has been modeled as the ligated receptor undergoing a series of reactions before producing a signal. In such a sequential mechanism, the number of steps is a key determinant of discrimination fidelity. Here, we consider two features of the molecula…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Direct imaging with multidimensional labelling and high‐content analysis allows quantitative categorization and characterizations of individual small extracellular vesicles and nanoparticles (sEVPs)

  Journal of Extracellular Vesicles · 2024-12-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Small extracellular vesicles and nanoparticles (sEVPs) are cell-secreted entities with potential as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic vehicles. However, significant intrinsic sEVP heterogeneity impedes analysis and understanding of their composition and functions. We employ multidimensional fluorescent labelling on sEVPs, leveraging the robustness of a newly developed membrane probe-conjugated oligoelectrolytes (COEs), and conduct total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy on s…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01GM064900

  NIH · $1.9M · 2008

• The role of positive and negative regulation on ligand discrimination by the TCR signaling pathway

  NIH · $54.2M · 2011–2027

• NIH Grant U01CA202241

  NIH · $3.3M · 2021

Frequent coauthors

• John Kuriyan

  Vanderbilt University

  188 shared

• Wan‐Chen Lin

  Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

  85 shared

• Arup K. Chakraborty

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  64 shared

• Adam W. Smith

  Texas Tech University

  62 shared

• Rebecca S. Petit

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  54 shared

• Alexander A. Smoligovets

  University of California, Berkeley

  54 shared

• Il‐Hyung Lee

  Montclair State University

  51 shared

• Carolyn R. Bertozzi

  Stanford University

  49 shared

Awards & honors

• Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences (…
• Searle Scholars Award (2002)
• MIT TR100 (2003)
• Beckman Young Investigator Award (2004)
• NSF CAREER Award (2005)

Similar researchers at University of California, Berkeley

• Peidong Yangh-262
• Jennifer A. Doudnah-230
• Jeffrey R. Longh-189