Welcome to the Patel Lab
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
The overarching goal of our research is to understand the molecular mechanisms of enzymes in DNA replication, DNA transcription, and pathogen recognition.
Our current research investigates the structure and mechanisms of (i) RNA polymerases and transcription factors that catalyze mitochondrial DNA transcription, (ii) replicative DNA helicase-primase and polymerases that catalyze phage T7 and mitochondrial DNA replication, and (ii) RIG-I and LGP2 innate immune receptors that detect common viruses.
We strive to quantitatively characterize the elementary steps of the enzymatic reactions, including motor proteins that drive DNA replication, transcription, and viral RNA recognition by the RIG-I like innate immune receptors. This is achieved through a multidisciplinary approach that employs a combination of structural, biochemical, biophysical, and computational modeling methods and studies the transient state and single molecule kinetics of enzyme reactions. Our research has application in biotechnology and therapeutics.