Francis Crick once notably said “If you wish to understand function, study structure”, Roger D. Kornberg took this further by noting “Extension of the structure to atomic resolution will one day reveal the regulatory mechanism”.
To understand how DNA sequence controls gene expression, one must first understand the binding specificity of transcription factors (TF) to DNA and/or other TFs/proteins. Therefore, the major aim of my research is to use X-ray crystallography to study the molecular principles underlying the interactions between TF and TF/other proteins or between TF and DNA.