The Russell lab studies structured nucleic acids (RNAs and DNAs) and enzymes that interact with and manipulate these structures. Current research topics are:

RNA folding

How do structural elements interact to form complex, higher-order RNA structures?

Can folding kinetics and stability be controlled by RNA structural modules?

How do structured RNAs overcome electrostatic repulsion during folding?

RNA helicases

How do helicase proteins function to chaperone folding of RNAs?

Do unknown partner proteins contribute to chaperone activity?

CRISPR-Cas enzymes

How do CRISPR-Cas endonucleases target a specific DNA sequence by unwinding DNA to allow base pairing with a guide RNA?

How is high specificity achieved in DNA targeting?

How do RNA structure and sequence control assembly and processing by Cas12a?

G-quadruplexes

How stable are these structures and how are they disrupted by specialized RNA helicase proteins?

How does a helicase protein disrupt G-quadruplex structures?

Do G-quadruplexes control telomerase RNA folding and protein assembly?

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