Doi, Roy
Roy Doi
Roy H. Doi was a distinguished professor emeritus of molecular and cellular biology who advanced the understanding of the mechanisms that control bacterial gene expression. Dr. Doi worked for over 40 years at the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at the University of California, Davis. In 2004, Dr. Doi was recognized by UC Davis’s Asian American Studies Program for his outstanding commitment, generosity, and service to the Asian American Studies Program and Community. In 2006, Dr. Doi was elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to molecular biology and biotechnology. Dr. Doi passed away peacefully and surrounded by family on October 9, 2017, at 84.
Doi, R.H., 2008. Cellulases of mesophilic microorganisms: cellulosome and noncellulosome producers. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1125(1), pp.267-279.
Doi, R.H., 2008, May. Cellulosomes from mesophilic bacteria. In Bioenergy (pp. 97-106). Washington, DC, USA: ASM Press.
Doi, R.H. and Kosugi, A., 2004. Cellulosomes: plant-cell-wall-degrading enzyme complexes. Nature reviews microbiology, 2(7), pp.541-551.
Murashima, K., Kosugi, A. and Doi, R.H., 2003. Synergistic effects of cellulosomal xylanase and cellulases from Clostridium cellulovorans on plant cell wall degradation. Journal of bacteriology, 185(5), pp.1518-1524.
Kawamura, F. and Doi, R.H., 1984. Construction of a Bacillus subtilis double mutant deficient in extracellular alkaline and neutral proteases. Journal of Bacteriology, 160(1), pp.442-444.
Roy H. Doi was born in Sacramento, CA, on March 26, 1933. He grew up in the nearby farming town of Loomis with five siblings. His parents were migrant farm workers who had immigrated from Japan. In 1943, his family, alongside 110,000 other Japanese Americans, was forcibly removed from their home by the United States government. His father sold the family car for $50 because they could only take minimal possessions.
For the next three and a half years, the Doi family was incarcerated in the Tule Lake and Heart Mountain internment camps. They lost anything they could not carry. Through these early experiences, Dr. Doi developed an unending compassion for those less fortunate. He has supported civil rights and human justice causes throughout his life.
He graduated from Placer Union High School in Auburn, California, in 1949 after the family was released. Dr. Doi went on to attend Placer Junior College in Auburn. He wasn’t sure what career path to pursue but knew he wanted to further his education. Dr. Doi started in pre-med, and after two years, he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a degree in physiology in 1953. With the United States in the Korean War, however, Dr. Doi did not have time to celebrate; as soon as he graduated, his military deferment was over, and he was drafted into the U.S. Army.
Dr. Doi was stationed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, after completing basic military training. He was introduced to microbial research while working on a genito-urethral research project there. His interest in microbiology increased when he was deployed to Japan with a medical unit studying encephalitis. This experience motivated Dr. Doi to return to school.
Dr. Doi was discharged in 1955 and returned to the University of California, Berkeley. In 1957, he graduated with a degree in bacteriology, his second undergraduate degree. Dr. Doi then went to the University of Wisconsin. He studied bacterial sporulation with Dr. Harlan Halverson and obtained his Ph.D. in the metabolism of bacterial spores in 1960.
After completing his doctoral degree, Dr. Doi moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne for postdoctoral work on RNA virus replication with microbiologist Dr. Sol Spiegelman. Dr. Doi was impressed with Dr. Spiegelman’s devotion to science, which impacted his career trajectory. In 1963, Dr. Doi started his laboratory at Syracuse University. In 1965, he was offered a position at UC Davis and relocated his work back to California.
Dr. Doi got to witness the birth of the gene-expression era. He fondly remembers the Cold Spring Harbor meeting of 1961 (Cold Spring Harbor, NY) that he attended with Dr. Spiegelman, where Dr. Doi stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s top molecular biologists.
In 1965, he returned to Sacramento when he was offered a faculty position at UC Davis. Over the next two decades, he continued exploring Bacillus’s molecular biology and genetics.
During his early career, Dr. Doi studied the machinery of genetic regulation in bacteria by investigating ribosomes, RNA polymerase, and transfer RNA. Dr. Doi discovered that specific gene promoters guide RNA polymerase. He found this after observing that sporulating Bacilli contain several forms of RNA polymerase (Slipher, 2017).
In 1989, Dr. Doi was appointed to lead a campus committee on biotechnology. Through the committee, he became interested in biochemistry and molecular biology. Dr. Doi learned that the California State Legislature planned to pass a law outlawing the burning of rice straw by 2001, so he switched gears to pursue cellulosome research. Cellulosomes are “complex enzymes and proteins secreted by several bacteria that break down cellulose and other components of plant cell walls into sugars” (Slipher, 2017). He chose the recently discovered sporulating bacteria Clostridium cellulovorans as his model because it produces copious amounts of extracellular cellulolytic enzymes that come together in a large complex. Then, after a crash course in anaerobic microbiology, he got to work, trying to uncover the structure and roles of all of the subunits of the complex. While investigating a less-polluting way to break down rice straw, Dr. Doi saw an opportunity to develop new renewable energy sources in cellulosome processes.
Dr. Soil Spiegelman served as a role model and a mentor for Dr. Doi while working on his postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
During his 40-plus years of service at UC Davis, Dr. Doi mentored many students, from undergraduates to postdoctoral researchers. He mentored international students from Japan and other countries and stayed in touch with many students throughout their lives.
Dr. Doi is remembered for his compassion, humility, and intellectual curiosity. His colleagues in the scientific community at UC Davis and worldwide miss Dr. Doi.
Roy Doi. n.d. Home [https://www.linkedin.com/in/roy-doi-653b5a4/]. LinkedIn. Retrieved May 25, 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/roy-doi-653b5a4/.
Slipher, D. 2017. Memorial Fund Established to Honor Distinguished Professor Emeritus Roy H. Doi. Retrieved July 5, 2023 from https://biology.ucdavis.edu/news/memorial-fund-established-honor-disting….
Zagorski, N. 2007. Profile of Roy H. Doi. Retrieved July 5, 2023 from https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0701360104.