Research

The blueprint of life encoded by the genome is interpreted, executed, and maintained by hundreds of thousands of proteins. Their precisely coordinated functions are fundamental to all biological systems and to every aspect of human health. We are in general interested in understanding how proteins interact with each other and with other biological molecules to mediate biological functions. Our current research mostly focuses on a superfamily of multi-subunit ubiquitin ligases, known as cull-RING E3 ligases (CRLs). These E3 ligases are numbered in hundreds in humans and control almost every aspect of human biology. We use structural biology and biophysical approaches, including cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography, to interrogate the functions of these E3s in diverse cellular pathways and are actively working on the prospective discovery of molecular glue-type small molecules that can co-opt these protein ubiquitinatioin machinery to promote the clearance of disease-driving aberrant proteins.