Assistant Professor
B.S. Biology – York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA
Ph.D., Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology –
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Postdoctoral – University of California, Los Angeles,
Los Angeles, CA
Protein biochemistry
Protein-nucleic acid interactions and dynamics
Bacteriophage-host interactions
Transcription and transcriptional regulation
Our research group is interested in understanding the structural, chemical, and thermodynamic mechanisms by which DNA-binding proteins facilitate the various DNA transactions that are essential for life. Recently our work has sought to address a rather simple question - Why do bacteriophages express so many DNA-binding proteins and what are these proteins doing to support the physiology of phage propagation. To answer this general question, students in our group employ numerous tools to identify and characterize essential phage encoded DNA-binding proteins including bioinformatics, bacterial recombineering, transcriptional profiling by qPCR, DNA-binding site profiling, protein purification, thermodynamic measurements of protein DNA-binding by EMSA and fluorometry, UV-VIS, X-Ray crystallography, and molecular dynamics simulations.