Our research seeks to reveal the principles that enable biological systems to sense and adapt to changing environments and to understand how we can use these principles to engineer synthetic biological systems that benefit humankind. A focal point of our work is RNA –a fundamental component of all living systems that enacts genetic, regulatory and catalytic functions by folding into intricate shapes within cells. An overarching approach of our work is to link fundamental discovery to synthesis: to distill the complexity of natural biological systems into design principles that can then be used to build sophistication within synthetic systems. This dual discovery/synthesis approach allows us to interrogate molecular systems in powerful ways, with each approach informing the other in a cycle of increasing understanding.
Lucks Laboratory 