Research Interests
Mechanisms of mammalian LINE-1 retrotransposition and applications in functional genomics
What is LINE-1 or L1? Long interspersed elements (LINEs) are common components of mammalian genomes. The human genome contains over 500,000 LINE-1 (L1) copies, most of which are 5' truncated. Full-length L1s are 6 kb in length, containing an internal promoter in the 5'UTR, two non-overlapping open reading frames (ORF1 and ORF2) and a 3'UTR followed by a poly(A) tail. Read more...
Mechanisms of L1 retrotransposition
L1 replicates exclusively inside individual cells, involving steps such as transcription, translation, target-primed reverse transcription and integration. Using mammalian cell culture and transgenic mouse as primary systems, we are interested in dissecting mechanisms of L1 retrotransposition, especially host factors involved in genetic and epigenetic regulation of L1 activity at both transcriptional and posttranscriptional stages.
Functional genomic studies in mice using L1
L1 can randomly insert new copies of itself throughout the genome by retrotransposition. This feature makes it an attractive tool for functional genomic studies in an important model organism for human diseases, the mouse. We are interested in optimization of ORFeus, a synthetic L1, based gene trapping system in mice and application of this system for discovering genes involved in tumorigenesis and other processes.