Richard S Myers

Research Summary

• The mechanics of inheritance, DNA damage repair and its consequences, genome engineering using viral recombinases.

The Myers Laboratory for Genetic Recombination studies the mechanics of inheritance, DNA damage repair and its consequences, and genome engineering using viral recombinases.

These areas include microbial genetics, bioinformatics, protein biochemistry, and molecular biology. Recent projects have focused on

1. Creation of an HIV genetic system using bacteriophage-mediated recombineering and bacterial artificial chromosomes;
2. Dissection of mechanistic coupling between recombination nucleases and binding proteins to determine how homologous DNA pairing regulates DNA resection;
3. Reconstructive molecular paleontology to uncover a universal mechanism for DNA mismatch repair;
4. Evaluating protein-protein interactions and the co-evolution of host and viral proteins to identify the “functional unit” of recombineering;
5. Fluorescent protein engineering by in vivo site-directed mutagenesis using viral SynExo recombinases;
6. Recombineering in human cells using a Herpes virus recombinase. Students fully participate in lab meetings, and become trained in research design, methodology, analysis, record-keeping, ethics, presentations and authorship. Advanced students will have opportunities to present their work at research conferences and may contribute to research publications.

His lab studies genetic recombination in bacteria and human cells and develops innovative genetic systems for studying human diseases.

Keywords: Molecular Biology of RNA, DNA and Epigenetic Modifiers