Robert C. Spitale
Biography
Robert C. Spitale, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Chemistry, and Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine, where he also serves as Associate Director of the UCI Neurotherapeutics Institute and UCI Chancellor's Fellow. From 2022 to 2024, Spitale took unpaid leave to serve as CEO of Savanna Biotherapeutics, a UC Irvine biotechnology spinout company that he co-founded. Spitale received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Rochester and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Spitale's research focuses on developing chemical biology methods to study RNA structure and function in living cells and animals, with particular emphasis on applications in neuroscience and neurodegeneration. His laboratory has pioneered techniques for metabolic labeling of RNA, including cell-specific and subcellular approaches, and has developed methods to probe RNA structure transcriptome-wide in living systems. His work has contributed to understanding the role of RNA modifications and structure in fear-related learning and memory, as well as in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
Spitale is an elected member of the NIH Molecular Neurogenetics Study Section and has received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Pew Biomedical Scholar Award, the W.M. Keck Foundation Medical Research Grant, and the International Chemical Biology Society Young Chemical Biologist Award. He is an ENCODE Investigator and serves on the scientific advisory boards of several biotechnology companies, including HTG Molecular Diagnostics, where he chairs the Therapeutic Discovery Scientific Advisory Board.
Return to topEducation
- B.S. in Biology, State University of New York (S.U.N.Y.) College at Fredonia, 2004
- B.S. in Chemistry, State University of New York (S.U.N.Y.) College at Fredonia, 2004
- Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Rochester, 2009
Distinctions
- Standing Member, Molecular Neurogenetics Study Section (NIH), 2018-2025
- ENCODE Investigator, 2017
- NIH Director's New Innovator Award, 2015
- Chan-Zuckerberg Neurodegeneration Challenge Network Award, 2020
- Merck/A.A.A.S. Undergraduate Research Fellowship, 2003
- W.M. Keck Foundation Medical Research Grant Awardee, 2018
- International Chemical Biology Society Young Chemical Biologist Award, 2019
- Pew Biomedical Scholar, 2017
- American Crystallographic Association Linus C. Pauling Award, 2009
- A.P. Giannini Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2011
Areas of Expertise
- RNA Chemical Biology
- Metabolic Labeling Techniques
- Transcriptome Structure Probing
- Epitranscriptomic Modifications
- Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Human Microglia Transplantation
- Huntington's Disease Splicing
Recent Publications
- Spitalny L., Falco N., England W., Allred T., Spitale R.C., “Novel Photocrosslinking Chemical Probes Utilized for High-Resolution Spatial Transcriptomics” (opens in new tab), Rsc Chemical Biology, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 404-411, 2025.
- Garfio C.M., Gupta M., Spitale R.C., “Using 5′ ³²P-Labeled Primer and Reverse Transcription to Probe RNA Structure” (opens in new tab), Current Protocols, vol. 3, no. 7, pp. e830, 2023.
- Gupta M., Garfio C.M., Spitale R.C., “Overview of Chemical Methods to Probe RNA Structure with Radionucleotides” (opens in new tab), Current Protocols, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. e781, 2023.
- Gupta M., Wang J., Garfio C.M., Vandewalle A., Spitale R.C., “Cycloaddition Enabled Mutational Profiling of 5-Vinyluridine in RNA” (opens in new tab), Chemical Communications, vol. 59, no. 22, pp. 3257-3260, 2023.
- Spitale R.C., Incarnato D., “Probing the Dynamic RNA Structurome and Its Functions” (opens in new tab), Nature Reviews Genetics, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 178-196, 2023.
- Singha M.K., Zimak J., Levine S.R., Dai N., Hong C., Anaraki C., Gupta M., Halbrook C.J., Atwood S.X., Spitale R.C., “An Optimized Enzyme-Nucleobase Pair Enables In Vivo RNA Metabolic Labeling with Improved Cell-Specificity” (opens in new tab), Biochemistry, vol. 61, no. 23, pp. 2638-2642, 2022.
- Sami J.D., Spitale R.C., Cleary M.D., “mRNAs Encoding Neurodevelopmental Regulators Have Equal N6-Methyladenosine Stoichiometry in Drosophila Neuroblasts and Neurons” (opens in new tab), Neural Development, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 9, 2022.
- Gupta M., Levine S.R., Spitale R.C., “Probing Nascent RNA with Metabolic Incorporation of Modified Nucleosides” (opens in new tab), Accounts of Chemical Research, vol. 55, no. 18, pp. 2647-2659, 2022.
- Falco N., Garfio C., Spitalny L., Spitale R.C., “A Fluorescent Reverse-Transcription Assay to Detect Chemical Adducts on RNA” (opens in new tab), Biochemistry, vol. 61, no. 16, pp. 1665-1668, 2022.
- Fredlender C., Levine S., Zimak J., Spitale R.C., “Repurposing a DNA-repair Enzyme for Targeted Protein Degradation” (opens in new tab), ChemBioChem, vol. 23, 2022.
- England W.E., Wang J., Chen S., Baldi P., Flynn R.A., Spitale R.C., “An Atlas of Posttranslational Modifications on RNA Binding Proteins” (opens in new tab), Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 50, no. 8, pp. 4329-4339, 2022.
- Beasley S., Vandewalle A., Singha M., Nguyen K., England W.E., Tarapore E., Dai N., Correa I.R., Atwood S.X., Spitale R.C., “Exploiting Endogenous Enzymes for Cancer-Cell Selective Metabolic Labeling of RNA In Vivo” (opens in new tab), Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 144, no. 16, pp. 7085-7088, 2022.
- Chan D., Feng C., England W., Shi Y., Spitale R.C., “Diverse Functional Elements in RNA Predicted Transcriptome-Wide by Orthogonal RNA Structure Probing” (opens in new tab), Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 49, no. 20, pp. 11868-11882, 2021.
- Gupta M., Singha M., Rasale D., Zhou Z., Bhandari S., Beasley S., Sakr J., Parker S., Spitale R.C., “Mutually Orthogonal Bioconjugation of Vinyl Nucleosides for RNA Metabolic Labeling” (opens in new tab), Organic Letters, vol. 23, no. 18, pp. 7183-7187, 2021.
- Acosta J., Nguyen K., Spitale R.C., Lucas J.F., “Taylor-Made Production of Pyrimidine Nucleoside-5'-monophosphate Analogues by Highly Stabilized Mutant Uracil Phosphoribosyltransferase from Toxoplasma gondii” (opens in new tab), Bioresource Technology, vol. 339, pp. 125649, 2021.
- Nguyen K., Wang Y., Chaput J.C., Spitale R.C., “Allele-Specific RNA Knockdown with a Biologically Stable and Catalytically Efficient XNAzyme” (opens in new tab), Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 143, no. 12, pp. 4519-4523, 2021.
- Wang Y., Nguyen K., Spitale R.C., Chaput J.C., “A Biologically Stable DNAzyme that Efficiently Silences Gene Expression in Cells” (opens in new tab), Nature Chemistry, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 319-326, 2021.
- Singha M., Spitalny L., Nguyen K., Vandewalle A., Spitale R.C., “Chemical Methods for Measuring RNA Expression with Metabolic Labeling” (opens in new tab), Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews RNA, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. e1650, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- Tsai, M.C., Spitale, R.C., Chang, H.Y., “Long Intergenic Non-Coding RNAs – the New Link in Cancer Progression” (opens in new tab), Cancer Research, vol. 71, pp. 3-7, 2011.
- Spitale, R.C., Flynn, R.A., Zhang, C., Crisalli, P.C., Lee, B., Jung, J-W., Kuchelmeister, H.Y., Batista, P.J., Torre, E.A., Kool, E.T., Chang, H.Y., “Structural Imprints In Vivo Decode RNA Regulatory Mechanisms” (opens in new tab), Nature, vol. 519, no. 7544, pp. 486-90, 2015.
- Wan, Y., Kertesz, M., Spitale, R.C., Segal, E., Chang, H.Y., “Understanding the Transcriptome Through RNA Structure” (opens in new tab), Nature Reviews Genetics, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 641-55, 2011.
- Spitale, R.C., Crisalli, P., Flynn, R.A., Torre, E.A., Quinn, J.J., Kool, E.T., Chang, H.Y., “RNA SHAPE Analysis in Living Cells” (opens in new tab), Nature Chemical Biology, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 18-20, 2013.
- Alfonso, L., Ai, G., Spitale, R.C., Bhat, G.J., “Molecular Targets of Aspirin and Cancer Prevention” (opens in new tab), British Journal of Cancer, vol. 111, no. 1, pp. 61-7, 2015.
- Spitale, R.C., Tsai, M.C., Chang, H.Y., “RNA Templating the Epigenome: Long Noncoding RNAs as Molecular Scaffolds” (opens in new tab), Epigenetics, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 539-543, 2011.
- Ci, C., Spitale, R.C., Chang, H.Y., “Technologies to Probe Functions and Mechanisms of Long Non-Coding RNAs” (opens in new tab), Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 29-35, 2015.
- Spitale, R.C., Torelli, A.T., Krucinska, J., Bandarian, V., Wedekind, J. E., “The Structural Basis For Recognition of the PreQ0 Metabolite By An Unusually Small Riboswitch Aptamer Domain” (opens in new tab), Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 284, pp. 11012-11016, 2009.
- Kubota, M., Tran, C., Spitale, R.C., “Progress and Challenges for Chemical Probing of RNA Structure Inside Living Cells” (opens in new tab), Nature Chemical Biology, vol. 11, no. 12, pp. 933-41, 2015.
- Nainar S., Marshall P.R., Tyler C.R., Spitale R.C., Bredy T.W., “Evolving insights into RNA modifications and their functional diversity in the brain” (opens in new tab), Nature Neuroscience, vol. 19, pp. 1292-1298, 2016.
Contact Information
Email: rspitale@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-7655
Address: 3134C Natural Sciences I
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Last updated on 3/24/2026.