Areas of Interest
My research focus is to understand the molecular mechanisms of Long Interspersed Element-1 (LINE-1) retrotransposition. LINE-1 is an autonomous retrotransposon whose sequence makes up a large portion of the human genome. Its proliferation is facilitated by two proteins it encodes on a bicistronic transcript, which undergoes an unusual mechanism of translation. Elucidating this mechanism will not only help us better understand LINE-1 retrotransposition, but will also be informative of ribosomal function.