Research in The Johnson Lab

Nucleic acids are tremendously versatile molecules. Aside from their role in information storage and transfer, DNA and RNA play active roles as functional molecules. They can act as catalysts (ribozymes, DNAzymes), participate in ligand binding (aptamers, riboswitches) and play a role as material for building nanoscale molecular devices (DNA origami). However, functional nucleic acids are typically thought of as a black box. The fine details of how these types of molecules work are often unknown. Their structures, how they interact with other molecules and how they fold into an active molecule are often poorly understood. Research in my laboratory aims to tackle this lack of understanding and learn how functional nucleic acid molecules perform their complex tasks. The area we are currently focussed on for discovering how functional nucleic acids work is studying the structure and function of DNA aptamer-small molecule complexes.

We use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to determine the three-dimensional structure of molecules. We also use isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and fluorescence spectroscopy to study binding interactions. Stability studies are performed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).