Current research
Our overarching research question is how genetic information is organized, transferred, persisted, and diversified across scales, from single species level to community?
Through combining multi-omics, genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, and X-ray crystallography, our group has made key discoveries on bacterial chromosome organization and segregation (first five years of the lab and ongoing). In a new research direction, we address mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) by virus-like gene transfer agents (GTAs), to understand how HGT contributes to microbial evolution and the rapid spread of antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity (second five years and ongoing).
Essentially, projects in the lab can be categorized as either investigating vertical gene transfer or horizontal gene transfer.
We do not have a single favorite model organism in the lab, we employ Escherichia coli, Caulobacter crescentus, Bacillus subtilis, Streptomyces coelicolor, Ruegeria pomeroyi, and even archaea such as Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, as appropriate for certain research question.
Other research interests:
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DNA-damage repair
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Evolution of protein-DNA binding specificity
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Toxin-antitoxin
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Contact-dependent inhibition (CDI)
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Anti-phage/plasmid defence
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Gene expression regulation
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Bacterial pilus systems
Research in our lab is funded by:
