Daniel Romo, Ph.D., FRSC
Schotts Professor of Chemistry | Co-Director, Baylor Synthesis & Drug Lead Discovery Lab | Chair of OrganicLinks Baylor University
- Waco TX
Researches the chemistry and biology of natural products, enduring leads for basic cell biology studies and drug development.
Media
Biography
As co-Director of Baylor’s Synthesis and Drug-Lead Discovery Laboratory, Dr. Romo seeks to translate basic discoveries emanating from his research laboratory to early pre-clinical studies and beyond through partnerships with other universities and pharma enabling advances in treatments for human diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and infection.
Before coming to Baylor, Dr. Romo was Gradipore Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M and Director of the TAMU Undergraduate MiniPharma program, which he transplanted to Baylor. The Baylor Undergraduate MiniPharma program is a semi-autonomous, team-oriented approach to undergraduate research involving three teams performing chemical synthesis, molecular modeling and biological testing of a common natural product with potent bioactivity.
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Distinguished Texas Scientist Award
Texas Academy of Sciences
2024
Faculty Mentor
Fulbright Specialist Roster
2023-2026
Outstanding Faculty Research Award
Baylor University
2021
Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award
NIH
2020-2030
Research Exemplar
P.I. Program
2017
Board of Scientific Counselors – Basic Sciences
NCI
2014–2017
Gradipore Professor of Chemistry
Texas A&M University
2014–2015
Royal Society of Chemistry
Fellow
2013–Present
Education
Colorado State University
B.A.
Chemistry/Biology
1986
Colorado State University
Ph.D.
1991
Affiliations
- American Chemical Society
- Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
Links
Media Appearances
Chemistry professor advances cancer research
Baylor Lariat online
2025-03-06
Romo said their goal is to innovate more effective therapeutic treatments that will increase the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients. According to Romo, this is because even when a patient goes into remission, there is still a chance that the cancer will come back and it can be very unpredictable from person to person.
“The idea is to try to extend the lives of patients that are dealing with these types of cancer,” Romo said.
Baylor Chemist Among Innovators Advancing Oncology Treatment
Baylor University online
2025-02-26
Baylor University cancer therapeutics researcher Daniel Romo, Ph.D., The Schotts Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the Baylor Synthesis and Drug Lead Discovery Lab, is one of 24 innovators named to the fifth cohort of Texas Medical Center Innovation’s 2025 Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics (ACT). Innovators like Romo are on the frontlines of advancing cancer treatments, in his case, developing a new therapeutic for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. The ACT program is funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
Loving Science and Loving God
Christianity Today online
2017-03-09
Daniel Romo is the Schotts Professor of Chemistry at Baylor University and Co-Director of the CPRIT Synthesis and Drug-Lead Discovery Laboratory. During the 2016 National Hispanic Education Summit hosted by Baylor University, Romo sat down with Andrea Ramirez, the executive director of the Faith and Education Coalition of the NHCLC, to discuss how his love of science is rooted in his love of God.
Research Grants
To pursue development of a groundbreaking drug to treat hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HIBI) in newborns
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
2023
Articles
Derivatization of ophiobolin A and cytotoxicity toward breast and glioblastoma cancer stem cells: Varying the ketone and unsaturated aldehyde moieties
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters2025
To gain further insights into the importance of the unsaturated 1,4-ketoaldehyde moiety of ophiobolin A (OpA) for the potency and selectivity observed toward cancer stem cells, several derivatives were synthesized through controlled reduction and oxidations of the unsaturated aldehyde and ketone moieties. Structure elucidation of these new OpA derivatives was achieved through detailed NMR studies and comparison to OpA and known isolated congeners possessing variations in these regions. The relative stereochemistry of the newly generated stereocenters was determined by coupling constants in conjunction with conformational analyses (DFT) of the synthetic derivatives. The cytotoxicity of these derivatives was studied against breast cancer and glioblastoma cell lines possessing stem-cell like properties.
Intramolecular epistasis correlates with divergence of specificity in promiscuous and bifunctional NSAR/OSBS enzymes
Protein Science2025
Understanding the functions and evolution of specificity-determining residues is essential for improving strategies to predict and design enzyme functions. Whether the function of an amino acid residue is retained during evolution depends on intramolecular epistasis, which occurs when the same residue contributes to different phenotypes in different genetic backgrounds. This study examines the relationship between epistasis and functional divergence by investigating a conserved specificity determinant in five homologs from the N-succinylamino acid racemase (NSAR)/o-succinylbenzoate synthase (OSBS) subfamily. NSAR activity originated as a promiscuous (non-biological) activity of an ancestral OSBS. Some extant NSAR/OSBS subfamily enzymes still have OSBS activity as a biological function and NSAR as a promiscuous activity, while some use both OSBS and NSAR activities as biological functions.
Combined HDAC and eIF4A inhibition: A novel epigenetic therapy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Drug Resistance Updates2025
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive and lethal malignancy. Emerging evidence suggests that epigenetic therapies have the potential to target key mechanisms driving PDAC progression and therapy resistance. Previous efforts to target KRAS-driven metabolic vulnerabilities, including dependence on enhanced fatty acid synthesis, have highlighted the potential for histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors to deplete acetyl-CoA and induce DNA damage through histone acetylation, while resistance emerges at least in part due to the reversible nature of HDAC inhibitor-induced acetylation.
Antioxidant, anti-tyrosinase, hepatoprotective, and anti-inflammatory potential in flowers and seeds of Ochna integerrima (Lour.) Merr
Natural Product Research2025
This study explored, for the first time, the antioxidant (total antioxidant content, reducing power, ferric ion reducing antioxidant power, hydroxyl radical scavenging, ferrous ion-chelating assays), anti-tyrosinase, anti-inflammatory properties, and hepatoprotective effect in HepG2 cell lines of Ochna integerrima (Loureiro) Merrill flowers and seeds. All extracts except n-hexane exhibited significant antioxidant activity, with high levels of tannin and proanthocyanidins. Luteolin (1), 6-γ,γ-dimethylallylkaempferol7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (2), 6-γ,γ-dimethylallylquercetin7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (3), and 6-γ,γ-dimethylallyldihydrokaempferol 7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (4) were isolated using semi-preparative HPLC.
Gasdermin D Cleavage and Cytokine Release, Indicative of Pyroptotic Cell Death, Induced by Ophiobolin A in Breast Cancer Cell Lines
International Journal of Molecular Sciences2026
An unmet challenge in managing breast cancer is treatment failure due to resistance to apoptosis-inducing chemotherapies. Thus, it is important to identify novel non-apoptotic therapeutic agents. Several non-apoptotic programmed cell death pathways utilize specific cellular signaling events to trigger lytic and pro-inflammatory cell death, examples of which are pyroptosis and necroptosis. Our study illustrates that ophiobolin A (OpA) is an anti-cancer agent that triggers lytic cell death in breast cancer cells, including triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This study reveals that OpA induces typical pyroptosis-like characteristics, including cellular swelling, plasma membrane rupture, GSDMD cleavage, and release of cytokines in breast cancer cells.
