Interplay of Viruses and Hosts in Bacterial Systems

Our lab studies the recently identified adaptive immune system of bacteria, the CRISPR/Cas system. This fascinating system remarkably adapts specifically to defend against newly encountered phages and launches a specific RNA-mediated response against their nucleic acids. In addition, we study novel phage interactions with their bacterial hosts,  and particularly novel interactions of T7 with its host, the Escherichia coli.
We combine state of the art molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, microscopy, DNA sequencing and mass spectrometry for our studies.