Molecular mechanisms and applications of monomeric DNA endonucleases

我的研究项目涉及可移动的遗传元素，即促进自身在基因组内和基因组之间传播的离散DNA单元。在过去的十年里，我的实验室一直在研究归宿内切酶的进化和功能，这是一种通过在DNA靶标上造成双链断裂(或缺口)来传播的定点DNA内切酶。在过去的资助期间，我们专注于关于GIY-YIG家族定位内切酶切割DNA的基本机制问题，并将这种机制理解转化为用于基因组编辑应用的新型单体嵌合核酸酶的生成。学术和工业研究人员使用基因组编辑试剂在复杂基因组中引入精确的修饰，用于农业、水产养殖、合成生物学和模式生物中基于发现的研究。

My program of research deals with mobile genetic elements, discrete units of DNA that promote their own spread within and between genomes. For the past ten years, my laboratory has studied the evolution and function of homing endonucleases, site-specific DNA endonucleases that spread by making a double-strand break (or nick) in a DNA target. Over the last funding period, we focused on basic mechanistic questions concerning DNA cleavage by the GIY-YIG family of homing endonucleases, and translating this mechanistic understanding to the generation of novel monomeric chimeric nucleases for genome-editing applications. Academic and industrial researchers use genome-editing reagents to introduce precise modifications in complex genomes for applications in agriculture, aquaculture, synthetic biology, and discovery-based research in model organisms.