Acad Arts & Sci (2018)[5] Richard D. Wood (born June 3, 1955 in Boulder, Colorado) is an American molecular biologist specializing in research on DNA repair and mutation.
XP patients cannot repair DNA mutations, particularly pyrimidine dimers, caused by UV and must be continuously protected from sunlight to prevent fatal skin scarring and cancers.
Wood established his own group at ICRF and over the next decade, performed a series of biochemistry experiments to understand each step in the repair process by adding individual, purified proteins.
[15] Since returning to the United States, his laboratory has focused on the role polymerases play in making ‘emergency’ translesion repairs that lead to additional mutational errors and contribute to cancers.
He is a jazz bassist (he was a college roommate of the Hollywood composer and orchestrator Geoff Stradling) and plays in local bands and together with his wife Enid Wood, a violinist and artist.