News Archive

Awards › Dr. Antony K. Chen receives Bayer Investigator Award 2023

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Article-HIV Assembly › Roles of RNA scaffolding in nanoscale Gag multimerization and selective protein sorting at HIV membranes

Through systematic comparisons of the nanoscale organizations and dynamics of Gag expressed in the presence or the absence of gRNA (so that cellular RNAs become predominantly packaged), we provide evidence that Gag progresses through quite distinct pathways to multimerize around gRNA or cellular RNAs. We also demonstrated that the two processes may lead to different transmembrane protein compositions in HIV membranes. Read More ›

Awards › Dr. Jinshan Qin receives 2023 Boehringer Ingelheim Postdoc Fellowship Award

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Article-RNA nanostructure › Rational design of self-assembled RNA nanostructures for HIV-1 virus assembly blockade

Here, we develop self-assembled RNA nanostructures that can inhibit HIV-1 virus assembly, achieved through hybridization of multiple artificial small RNAs with a stem–loop structure (STL) that we identify as a prominent ligand of Gag that can inhibit virus particle production via STL-Gag interactions. Read More ›

Article-Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation › A Background Assessable and Correctable Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation System for Nanoscopic Single-Molecule Imaging of Intracellular Protein–Protein Interactions

We have developed Background Assessable and Correctable-BiFC (BAC-BiFC) that enables physiologically relevant characterization of specific PPIs at the nanoscopic level not attainable by conventional BiFC. Read More ›

Review-Molecular Beacon › Recent Advances in the Molecular Beacon Technology for Live-Cell Single-Molecule Imaging

In this review, emphasis is given to the progress made in advancing the MB technology toward live-cell single-molecule analysis. Read More ›

Article-Genomic Labeling › CRISPR/dual-FRET molecular beacon for sensitive live-cell imaging of non-repetitive genomic loci

We have combined CRISPR and dual-FRET MBs to develop the CRISPR/dual-FRET MB system that can be used to measure the dynamics of non-repetitive regions of distinct genomic loci in the human genome with as few as three unique sgRNAs. Read More ›

Review-Genomic Labeling › Progress and Challenges for Live-cell Imaging of Genomic Loci Using CRISPR-based Platforms

In this review, we describe currently-available approaches for imaging single genomic loci in cells, with special focus on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based imaging approaches. Read More ›

Article-HIV Assembly › Roles of Gag-RNA interactions in HIV-1 virus assembly deciphered by single-molecule localization microscopy

In contrast to the general notion that vRNA only triggers Gag assembly and is dispensable for subsequent assembly, we found that vRNA is indispensable throughout assembly, scaffolding the formation of assembly intermediates and maintaining their architectures via balancing of external forces acting on the assembly environment. Read More ›

Article-Genomic Labeling › A CRISPR/molecular beacon hybrid system for live-cell genomic imaging

We have developed a novel live-cell genomic imaging platform, termed CRISPR/MB, which comprises dCas9, an MB, and an sgRNA engineered with an MB target sequence in the stem–loop 2 region, and demonstrated its capacity for quantitative, dynamic and dual-color analysis of genomic loci in human cells. Read More ›

Article-Autophagy › Inhibition of retroviral Gag assembly by non-silencing miRNAs promotes autophagic viral degradation

In this study, we demonstrated that targeting of misassembled viral complexes from the PM to lysosomes for degradation is driven by macroautophagy. The process involves p62, which potentially recognizes the endocytosed misassembled viral complexes as protein aggregates. Read More ›

Article-Single-molecule RNA imaging › A molecular beacon-based approach for live-cell imaging of RNA transcripts with minimal target engineering at the single-molecule level

Using MBs that elicit a marginal level of nonspecific signals (2Me/PSLOOP MBs), we showed that single RNA transcripts engineered with as few as 8 tandem repeats of an MB target sequence can be detected at the single-molecule level with high accuracy under standard widefield fluorescence microscopy. Read More ›

Article-Single-molecule RNA imaging › Single-molecule detection and tracking of RNA transcripts in living cells using phosphorothioate-optimized 2′-O-methyl RNA molecular beacons

In this study, we systematically optimized the extent of PS modification of the 2Me backbone and successfully created a new molecular beacon platform that overcomes the shortcomings (false-positive signals) associated with conventional MBs. Read More ›