Equipment for a radioisotope room

锌指蛋白参与多种生物过程，如复制、转录调控、RNA加工和翻译控制。总之，这些过程代表了控制细胞内基因表达的主要机制。在执行这些功能时，锌指与DNA、RNA和蛋白质相互作用。我们感兴趣的是了解如何与这种结构多样的分子相互作用可以在锌指基序中进行调节。我们使用多种实验方法来开展锌指蛋白的研究。定点诱变用于鉴定蛋白质上的氨基酸和核酸上的核苷酸，这些氨基酸和核苷酸参与形成特定的分子复合物。我们还使用核酸的定向进化来识别和表征锌指蛋白核酸结合特性的新方面。我们开始使用x射线晶体学以原子分辨率获得这些分子复合物的详细图像。我们实验室的一种新方法是使用蛋白质组学来了解细胞内涉及特定锌指蛋白的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用网络。我们的研究结果促进了我们对这类重要细胞蛋白功能的认识和理解。

Zinc finger proteins are involved in such diverse biological processes as replication, transcriptional regulation, RNA processing, and translational control. Together, these processes represent the main mechanisms for controlling the expression of genes within cells. In carrying out these functions, zinc fingers interact with DNA, RNA and proteins. We are interested in understanding how interactions with such structurally diverse molecules can be accommodated within the zinc finger motif.      We use a variety of experimental approaches to carry out our research on zinc finger proteins. Site-directed mutagenesis is used to identify amino acids on the proteins, and nucleotides on the nucleic acids, that are involved in forming specific molecular complexes. We also use directed evolution of nucleic acids to identify and characterize novel aspects of the nucleic acid binding properties of zinc finger proteins. We are beginning to use x-ray crystallography to obtain detailed pictures of these molecular complexes with atomic resolution. A new approach in our laboratory is to use proteomics to understand the network of protein-protein interactions within the cell involving specific zinc finger proteins.     The results of our research advance our knowledge and understanding of the function of this important class of cellular proteins.