My lab has made progress on several fronts. 1. we elucidated the physical basis for lattice phase transition triggered by ligand and discovered a fundamental phenomenon called molecular synchronization in crystal lattices. Currently, we are preparing the manuscript to report the results. This project is a long-term and very fundamental to visulization of molecular movies 2. we have designed several RNA devices that have near ideal kinetic characteristics for potential clinic applications. Currently, we are further optimizing those devices in vitro and planning to further characterize them in mouse and human lymphocyte cells. Our eventual plan is to collaborate with the CCR clinicians in Bethesda for potential applications in immunotherapy. Thus this project is potentially translational. 3. We made progress in determining RNA three-dimensional structures in aqueous solution using atomic force microscopy. RNA molecules tend to be very dynamics and flexible, and is generally not amenbale to structure characterization by conventional methods such as NMR, crystallography or cryo-EM. We have overcome several technical challenges. Now we are able to visulaize double strand nucleic acids in aquous solution with resolution up to major/minor grooves. At the presnet time, we are testing the technique using RNA with a known structure to validate our method.
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