Mechanisms of transcription re-initiation
Transcription reinitiation occurs following a pioneering round of transcription but remains poorly understood. Reinitiation events produce most RNA transcripts and are essential for robust biological responses.  Reinitiation may occur through mechanisms distinct from "first-round" transcription initiation.  A reinitiation scaffold, discovered in S. cerevisiae by the Steve Hahn lab, consists of a set of general transcription factors that remain promoter-associated following the first round of transcription; this scaffold may similarly operate at human genes, to facilitate transcription re-initiation.  My project implements biochemical and cell-based methods to characterize the molecular mechanisms that control transcription re-initiation in human cells.Â
Publications
Zhou, W., E. Ramos, X. Zhu, P. M. Fisher, M. E. Kidane, B. H. Vanderloop, C. D. Thomas, J. Yan, U. Singha, M. Chaudhuri, M. T. Nagel, and W. D. Nes. Steroidal antibiotics are antimetabolites of Acanthamoeba steroidogenesis with phylogenetic implications. J Lipid Res 2019, 60: 981–994.