Rui Gan
Creating an artificial ribozyme with aminoacyl tRNA synthetase activity
Contact Info:Training Group(s):
Biomolecular Structure and Biophysics
Current Research Interests:
Unnatural amino acids (UAAs) are widely used in the field of protein localization, post-translational modification, bispecific antibody creation, live but replication-incompetent virus production, etc. To incorporate an UAA into a protein, firstly, the UAA must be loaded onto a tRNA through aminoacylation reaction catalyzed by an engineered aaRS (aminoacyl tRNA synthetase). However, the complexity of aaRS engineering limits the chemical diversity of the incorporated UAAs. My project aims to create an artificial ribozyme with aaRS activity and this ribozyme, theoretically, can load various UAAs onto a specific tRNA, regardless of the diversity of their side chains. The final goal of this project is to provide a tool (the ribozyme) for all the labs who want to quickly incorporate UAAs, no matter in the prokaryotic or eukaryotic expression system, in vitro or in vivo- Student Profile
