| Our laboratory studies gene expression, RNA splicing, autocatalytic
introns, and retroviral genetic elements in eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
We are interested in mechanisms of RNA catalysis, how proteins assist
formation of RNA structure, mechanisms of intron mobility, the
evolution of introns and splicing mechanisms, and the origin of
retroviruses and reverse transcription. Recently, we have used mobile
group II introns to develop a novel class of gene targeting vectors,
"targetrons", which can be programmed to insert into any desired target
DNA. These vectors have potentially widespread applications in genetic
engineering, functional genomics, and gene therapy. |
