RNA polymerase is the central enzyme of gene expression in all free-living organisms. We seek to understand how the fundamental properties of RNA polymerase, largely conserved from bacteria to human, make it susceptible to pausing, arrest, or termination and how elongation regulators, nucleoprotein structures, and metabolic, developmental, and environmental signals alter these properties.
We study the mechanisms by which gene expression by RNA polymerase is regulated and can be re-programmed for biodesign, and how these basic research advances can be applied to microbial biotechnology and to antibiotic discovery. Members of our lab develop and apply expertise from a variety of scientific disciplines, including genetics, biomolecular chemistry, synthetic biology, systems biology, biophysics, and structural biology, to both individual and collaborative projects.