So my research group, we're really interested in enzymes involved in DNA replication and repair. In particular, we're studying enzymes from extremophilic microorganisms and also from pathogens because we want to understand how these enzymes let those organisms survive environmental challenges. We're interested both in the biological function of the enzymes and also in the biotechnological applications.
So we work a lot with DNA and RNA ligases, and we've recently established the role of a minimal type of DNA ligase which seems to be trafficked to the outside of bacterial cell. And we've determined that this plays a role in biofilm formation in the pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae. We've also, together with our collaborators from ArcticZymes characterized a novel RNA-to-DNA ligase which is able to attach DNA adapters to either end of a piece of RNA.
So our collaborators at ArcticZymes, who've also contributed to this protocol, are characterizing different DNA and RNA-metabolizing enzymes which have potential applications in molecular biology. And so they're using this type of protocol as a first step for understanding the spectrum of activities these enzymes have and benchmarking them relative to what's already available on the market. The protocol offers an easier and safer alternative for assaying nucleic acid metabolizing enzymes compared to the use of radiolabeled substrates.
The fluorescently labeled DNA or RNA substrates make our approach more efficient, as we can mix and match the oligonucleotides to make a variety of substrates. So at the moment, we're really focused on understanding the biological function of some novel nucleases that we've discovered in an Antarctic environmental genome. These nucleases have homologs in other extremophilic organisms, and so we're trying to understand what role they play in allowing these microbes to survive.
We're also really interested in the activity of some of our novel enzymes on non-natural nucleic acid analogs and their potential uses as part of a molecular biology toolkit with non-natural DNA and RNA substrates.
