Research/Biochemistry
Measuring what immune machines do
We purify immune complexes and the phage proteins that fight them, then measure which nucleic acids they recognize, how they cut them and how inhibitors stop them.
Simulation of a typical cleavage assay. Lanes are minutes after adding the immune complex; M is a size ladder: DNA fragments of known length, in base pairs.
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Biochemistry
A typical workflow
- Express and purify the immune proteins
- Mix them with DNA or RNA targets
- Read binding and cutting on gels, with and without phage inhibitors
- Protein expression and purification
- Nuclease and binding assays
- Reconstituting immune complexes
- Anti-defense inhibition
Selected papers
- Identification and structure determination of a type III-Bv CRISPR complex that post-translationally modifies an associated toxinStructure · 2026
- Protein-primed homopolymer synthesis by an antiviral reverse transcriptaseNature · 2025
- Adenosine modifications impede SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA transcriptionRNA · 2024
- Anti-CRISPR proteins function through thermodynamic tuning and allosteric regulation of CRISPR RNA-guided surveillance complexNucleic Acids Research · 2022
- Sequence-specific capture and concentration of viral RNA by type III CRISPR system enhances diagnosticNature Communications · 2022
- Intrinsic signal amplification by type III CRISPR-Cas systems provides a sequence-specific SARS-CoV-2 diagnosticCell Reports Medicine · 2021