Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow
UC Berkeley
Akanksha Thawani PhD
I am a molecular and structural biologist who enjoys investigating biological mechanisms using multidisciplinary approaches. In particular, I am using cryo-electron microscopy, biochemical and genetic tools to understand how the mobile genome functions and counteracts the host defense machinery.
Research Interests
My current work in Eva Nogales and Kathleen Collins laboratories focuses on understanding how retrotransposons, mobile elements that constitute a large fraction of the eukaryotic genomes, spread. Recently I have investigated the mechanism that the human LINE-1 retrotransposon deploys to mobilize within the human genome.
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Previously, my graduate research with Sabine Petry and Howard Stone identified proteins and molecular mechanisms involved in the nucleation of microtubules, a class of cytoskeletal polymers.
Selected
Publications
Thawani A, Florez-Ariza AJ, Nogales E, Collins KC. Template and target site recognition by human LINE-1 in retrotransposition. Nature (2023). [pdf] [link]
Thawani A, Rale MJ, Coudray N, Bhabha G, Shaevitz JW, Stone HA, Petry S. The transition state and regulation of gamma-TuRC-mediated microtubule nucleation revealed by single molecule microscopy. eLife (2020). [pdf] [link]