Research

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My laboratory is interested in the dynamic protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions that are required to replicate genomic DNA. We are interested in the mechanism of action of individual enzymes as well as the coordination and timing of the activities of the many enzymes that are required. Currently, our work is focused on enzymes that are part of the replisome which is responsible for unwinding the parental DNA and synthesizing the new daughter strands. Our goals are to understand how these enzymes work and what happens when these enzymes encounter DNA damage that forms a "road block" to further DNA synthesis.
A great animation illustrating the dynamic interactions between proteins and between proteins and DNA at the replication fork can be found at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's website. In their movie, DNA is red, DNA polymerases are purple, sliding clamps are green, the clamp loader is gray with light blue tau subunits, the DNA helicase is dark blue, primase is yellow-green, and primers are yellow. Click on the image at the right to jump to their website.