Principal Investigator Gene-Wei Li
Almost every cellular process is mediated by a complex machine made of multiple proteins and/or RNAs (e.g. RNA polymerases and ribosomes). Proper assembly of these machines is critical for their function. Furthermore, mis-assembled proteins are not only wasteful, they are prone to aggregation and can disrupt properly assembled complexes, thus acting as a dominant negative. Because an individual complex is composed of an integer number of each subunit, its assembly is by default a quantitative problem. We are interested in how cells coordinate their expression and assembly under distinct environmental condition or in different cell types. We are also using the principles we have discovered to discover and further characterize the molecular complexes that make life possible.