Hong Li

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

 11/26/06

   Our laboratory is primarily concerned with the structure mechanisms at atomic levels of RNA:protein interactions that occur during gene expression and regulation processes.  We use a multi-disciplinary approach in order to understand the structural and functional properties of protein and RNA molecules. Our primary effort of research is to obtain crystal structures of proteins and their cognate RNA substrates that are involved in basic biological processes. Results from these studies provide us with wealthy atomic details that can be further analyzed by biochemical, molecular genetics, and theoretical methods.  Our goal is to be able to understand the physical and chemical principles governing the protein:RNA recognition and their functional roles in gene expression.

   During the processes of gene expression and regulation, a diverse range of RNA:protein interactions occur at the level of transcription and translation as well as post-transcriptional modifications. RNA:protein interactions thus play essential functional roles. However the principle of how RNA interact with proteins is still poorly understood owing to few numbers of RNA and RNA:protein complex structures currently available. Unlike DNA molecules, RNA can fold into compact structures for interacting with proteins and small molecules. We hope that by combining structural properties of RNA:protein complexes with their biological function, our studies will shed light on the structural mechanism of RNA and their interactions with proteins.

   We are currently investigating structure and function of several RNA processing and modifying enzymes. These include the RNA splicing endonuclease and box C/D and H/ACA small riboncleoprotein particles (sRNPs). You can click the images below to read more about each of these projects.