Our Research
We are interested in the structure, function, and engineering of protein compartments, protein organelles, protein machines, and enzyme filaments. The systems we work on are involved in various aspects of microbial metabolism, including detoxification, stress resistance, nutrient utilization, and natural product biosynthesis. Our engineering and synthetic biology work is focused on nanocarriers for therapeutics delivery, enzyme nanoreactors for biocatalysis, and nanotechnological tool development for basic science applications.
Our interdisciplinary work utilizes techniques and approaches spanning the fields of biochemistry, structural biology (cryo-EM and x-ray crystallography), microbiology, protein engineering, and synthetic biology.
Some of the questions we are currently pursuing are:
What are the roles protein-based organelles play in microbial metabolism?
How do protein organelles influence microbial virulence, host-microbe interactions, and subsequently human health and disease?
How can we engineer protein assemblies as functional nanomaterials, drug delivery devices, enzyme nanoreactors, and research tools for cell and structural biology?
How are complex bacterial secondary metabolites synthesized by biosynthetic machines and how can we utilize microbial enzymes for combinatorial biosynthesis approaches to create novel structural diversity? Learn more
