| Faculty Home Biophysics Home UM Home | ||||||||
Hashim M Al-Hashimi |
||||||||
Structure and dynamics of nucleic acids and ribonucleoproteins using NMR spectroscopy |
||||||||
Ph.D., Yale University |
||||||||
| Dept: Department of Chemistry and Biophysics Research Division | ||||||||
| Office Address: Room 2821 | ||||||||
| Phone: (734) 615-3361 | ||||||||
|
Email: hashimi@umich.edu |
||||||||
| Al-Hashimi Lab | ||||||||
| For
a long time, it was believed that RNA would only assume the roles of
transfer, ribosomal and messenger RNA in protein biosynthesis. Composed
of only four chemically similar nucleotides, it was assumed that RNA
lacked the ability to fold into complex three-dimensional structures
needed to effect diverse functions. Although we now know that the role
of RNA function in gene expression and regulation goes well beyond
protein biosynthesis, the current repertoire of RNA structures has by
and large vindicated original expectations; RNA does have a limited
structural coverage. What then is the origin of RNAs functional
versatility? Unlike many proteins, RNAs functional versatility does not appear to derive principally from its structure, but rather from its ability to undergo conformational change. Dynamical changes in RNA conformation are now implicated in almost every known RNA function, including in the function of the ribosome, spliceosome, catalytic ribozymes, messenger and viral RNAs, and small interfering RNAs. The next frontier in the structural biology of RNA is therefore the characterization of functional dynamics at atomic resolution. A primary objective of our research program is to develop novel NMR methodology for characterizing RNA dynamics with high structural and temporal resolution. These methods uniquely provide an atomic time-resolved description of RNA dynamics. A second objective is to apply these high resolution dynamical methods to understand how motions contribute to the functions of RNA domains derived from the untranslated 298 nt leader RNA located at the 5'-end of the HIV-1 genome. A third objective is to gain insight into dynamical principles that can aid the rational design of RNA binding anti-HIV therapeutics. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
Representative Publications |
||||||||
-Zhang, Q., Sun, X., Watt, E. D., and Al-Hashimi, H. M., Resolving the Motional Modes that Code for RNA Adaptation. Science, 311:653-656 2006 |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
| Top | ||||||||
|
||||||||