This page is the gateway into summaries of ongoing projects in our lab. We have tried to provide outlines and examples of recent studies and results associated with these projects. Click on a thumbnail to go to a short summary of the project.  You may also be interested in our lab bibliography for these projects.
Structure, function and
engineering of intron-
encoded homing endonucleases
and maturases
  

Structure and function
of cofactors in
the blood coagulation
pathway


Design and engineering
of proteins and enzyme
catalysts
 

Structure, function and
engineering of nucleotide
synthesis and salvage enzymes

Structure and function
of nucleotide kinase and hydrolase enzymes


Structural
Enzymology

SUMMARY:

The overall goal of our laboratory is to characterize the structure/function relationships of a variety of enzymatic catalysts at the atomic level.  Much of this work is being extended into efforts to engineer novel properties onto existing enzyme scaffolds.   Most of our particular area of focus is on enzymes that act to modify nucleic acid substrates, and a unifying theme between many of the individual projects is the selection and engineering of these enzymes for targeted therapeutic applications.

The tools employed by our lab are X-ray crystallography, computer modeling, and genetic manipulation of the molecules of interest, combined with biochemical analyses of function.  The projects currently under investigation, and corresponding citations can be viewed by clicking on the images above.