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Research Ty3 VLP structure Ty3 position specificity Ty3 retrotransposition and host genes Lab Members Former labbies Methods Links
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Research Ty3 VLP structure Ty3 position specificity Ty3 retrotransposition and host genes Lab Members Former labbies Methods Links
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Becky
Irwin graduated with a B.S. from Cal State Fullerton. Becky is
lab manager which speaks for itself. She has been involved in
characterizing host mutants for their ability to support Ty3
transposition. Currently, Becky is working on ChIP assays with which
to detect Ty3 cDNA in the nucleus in order to better understand the roles
of DNA maintenance host proteins in transposition.
Virginia
received her B.A. degree from the University of Rhode Island and her Ph.D.
from the University of Connecticut. She has worked on several
different systems including mouse, human and yeast. Virginia has
experience in isolation of protein complexes and organelles and is
interested in understanding macromolecular complex assembly and
intermolecular interactions. In the life cycle of retroviruses and
retrotransposons, the genomic RNA is reverse transcribed into cDNA that is
inserted into the chromosome of the host cell. The details of this
important process are just beginning to be understood. I will take
advantage of the yeast retrotransposon Ty3 model system in my
investigations. Previous work in the Sandmeyer laboratory revealed that
Ty3 VLPs are too large to enter the nucleus through nuclear pores. Since
the cell nucleus does not break down during cell division, extensive
remodeling to form a preintegration complex (PIC) must occur to allow
entry of the cDNA into the nucleus. My studies are focused on
identification and characterization of this PIC. She is fractionating
Ty3-containing cell extracts by sucrose density gradient centrifugation,
iin order to identify PIC fractions using the Ty3 in vitro integration
assay. The PIC fractions will be further characterized in regard to
protein and nucleic acid components. In addition, the role of cellular
proteins in this process will be investigated by the use of mutants that
affect transposition. 
Stuart
Arfin received his Ph.D. from Albert Einstein University in NY City and
did his postdoctoral work with E. Umbarger at Purdue University. He
is a long time member and previous Chair of the Department of Biological
Chemistry at UCI where he has worked on tRNA charging and protein turnover
in mammalian cells. He has currently joined our laboratory on a part
time basis to help in projects related to the isolation and structural
characterization of Ty3 VLPs. 
Ming
Zhang graduated from Shangxi Medical University with a B.A. and from
Peking University Health Science Center with a M.S. degree. Her
thesis project is understanding the structure and function of the Ty3
viruslike particle. Toward that end she has collaborated with Y.
Kuznetsov to use atomic force microscopy to characterize particles at
different stages of morphogenesis. That work has been published in
J. Virology. She is currently engaged in characterizing Ty3 mutants
with changes in conserved motifs and candidate processing and modification
sites in the the Gag3 VLP protein. She is collaborating with the
protein modeling group of P. Baldi in Information and Computer Sciences in
order to better understand the effect of mutations in the nucleocapsid
protein (NC) of Ty3 on Ty3 particle formation.
Liza-Zicker-Larsen
is a graduate student in the Hatfield laboratory enrolled in the
Biomedical Informatics Training Grant (BIT). She and her advisor,
Dr. Wes Hatfield, have collaborated with Dr. Rick Lathrop of Information
and Computer Sciences to develop algorithms to recode proteins for
improved folding in expression in recombinant systems. She has used
the Ty3 structural protein, Gag3 as a model system for this work. In
addition, she is working on the structure and function of the Gag3
protein. She has performed ala scanning mutagenesis to better
understand Gag3 interactions with host proteins and the role of the major
homology region in VLP function. She is collaborating with the
laboratory of P. Baldi in Information and Computer Sciences to model the
Ty3 CA structure and the effects of these mutations on it.
Nadia
graduated with a B.S. from St. Petersburg State University in Moscow,
Russia. She was a technician in the Sandmeyer laboratory for two
years prior to joining it as a graduate student. She is interested
in understanding the localization of Ty3 VLP assembly and the contribution
of different host proteins to that process. She has made extensive
use of fluorescence microscopy and Ty3-GFP fusion constructs.
Recently in collaboration with the Roy Parker laboratory she discovered
that Ty3 proteins, RNA, and VLPs are associated with sites of RNA
processing called P-bodies.
Kim
Nguyen graduated with a B.S. from University of California, Irvine.
She worked for several years as the chief staff research associate in the
UCI DNA and Protein Microarray facility. She joined the Sandmeyer
laboratory in order to study the mechanism of Ty3 targeting to RNA Pol III
transcribed genes. She has recently detected in vitro interactions
between the Ty3 integrase and RNA Pol III transcription factors.
Willy
Liou was a 199 undergraduate researcher in the laboratory during which
time he worked on screening the yeast knockout collection for mutants
affected in transposition. He has recently joined the laboratory as
a staff research Associate. Willy is working on the isolation of
protein for structural studies and on the characterization of Ty3 mutants
with enhanced transposition.
Anne
Lamsa and Vuk Kovacevic are undergraduate researchers in the laboratory
who are working with Min and Liza on VLP characterization and recombinant
protein production. Anne was awarded and undergraduate research
fellowship this year to help support her studies. 