The research in Dr. Dann’s laboratory focuses on determining atomic resolution structures of RNA and protein macromolecules by X-ray crystallography. An emphasis is placed on cis-acting regulatory RNAs termed riboswitches and the gene products (proteins) that they regulate. In addition to structural biology, we are interested in both manipulating riboswitches to generate engineered molecular sensors (on/off switches) and testing riboswitches as targets in small molecule screens to discover new antibiotics. Projects in the laboratory afford the researcher opportunities to learn computational modeling, structural and biophysical techniques as well as general biochemistry and molecular biology in both RNA and protein systems.
Research:
- Molecular Apsects of Human Folate and Antifolate Trafficking
Subject areas:
- Quantitative Biology and Biophysics
- Life
Research Interests:
- protein structure-based drug design targeting cells involved in epithelial cancer and autoinflammatory disease, biochemical, mechanistic, and X-ray crystallographic analyses of regulatory RNAs; developing riboswitch-based molecular sensors
