Faculty Appointments
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
Education
Ph.D., Chemical and Physical Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TennesseeB.S., Biochemistry, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York
Research Description
The overarching goal of the Wan lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms of viral pathogenesis. Our lab focuses on members of the viral order Mononegavirales, which are named for their single-stranded negative-sense RNA genomes. Specifically, we’re interested in important human pathogens such as measles, rabies, and Ebola viruses. We aim to understand the mechanisms of viral life cycles by studying the interactions between viral and host molecules directly within infected cells at molecular-level resolution. To do this, we develop in situ structural biology methods, which aim to study molecules “in place”, i.e. within native cellular environments without separation or purification. In situ structural biology bridges the traditional roles of disciplines such as molecular, cell, and structural biology to directly show how molecular interactions determine cellular processes. In particular, we develop reverse genetics approaches to safely model viral life cycles, cryo-electron tomography for molecular imaging, and image processing algorithms for high-resolution structure determination.
Research Keywords
structural biology; virology; host-pathogen interactions; molecular pathology; cryo-EM; cryo-ET; biophysics; correlative microscopy;