Rate My Professor Kyle Friend

Kyle Friend is Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Washington and Lee University, where he joined as Visiting Assistant Professor in 2013, was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2014, and advanced to Associate Professor in 2020. He teaches courses on genetic engineering and biochemistry at all levels. Friend earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University in 2000. He conducted postbaccalaureate research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, from 2000 to 2001. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 2007, followed by postdoctoral training as Associate in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University from 2007 to 2008 and as Postdoctoral Fellow in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin from 2008 to 2013. His research employs mouse embryonic stem cells to examine how mRNA translation factors and stability regulators control stem cell differentiation into other cell types. Additional investigations include ribosome processivity enhanced by mTORC1, effects of Geneticin on mRNA stability, and protein compositions determining material properties of spider web glues such as cobweb spiders' gumfoot glue droplets and orb weaver aggregate glues, frequently collaborating with Washington and Lee undergraduates.

Friend has received significant funding, including as Principal Investigator on the Jeffress Memorial Trust award from 2017 to 2019, Associated Colleges of the South grants in 2020-2021, and as co-Principal Investigator on the National Science Foundation Research at Undergraduate Institutions grant from 2018 to 2023 and an Associated Colleges of the South grant in 2019. He held an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2010 to 2013. Key publications encompass 'Geneticin reduces mRNA stability' (PLoS One, 2022), 'Protein composition and associated material properties of cobweb spiders’ gumfoot glue droplets' (Integrative and Comparative Biology, 2021), 'mTORC1 enhances early phase ribosome processivity' (Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 2020), 'Orb weaver aggregate glue protein composition as a mechanism for rapid evolution of material properties' (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2023), 'Embryonic stem cell growth factors regulate eIF2α phosphorylation' (PLoS One, 2015), 'A conserved PUF–Ago–eEF1A complex attenuates translation elongation' (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2012), and 'U2 snRNP binds intronless histone pre-mRNAs to facilitate U7-snRNP-dependent 3' end formation' (Molecular Cell, 2007). Friend has delivered public lectures, including Nobel Prize Symposium talks on Physiology or Medicine in 2023 and 2025. He maintains professional affiliations with the American Chemical Society and the RNA Society.