One goal of my lab is to define the mechanism by which telomeres mediate chromosomal end protection and telomerase action using structural, biochemical and cellular tools. Understanding the mechanism of telomere maintenance is important in understanding the complex biological processes of cancer and aging. Our work encompasses detailed characterization of the proteins that bind the conserved single-stranded overhang at telomeres to understand both how their unique affinities and specificities are achieved as well as the biological roles for these activities. A second goal of my lab is to understand the protein interactions that mediate the activities of long non-coding RNAs and non-standard protein/RNA interactions. We have discovered a new role for transcriptional factors that bind RNA as well as DNA. The specificity of RNA binding and its role in cells is a current focus of the lab.
keywords
structural biology, telomere and telomerase, ssDNA, protein, long non-coding RNA and non-canonical protein, RNA interactions, transcription/RNA, molecular recognition
