First paper from the lab published!

The first paper from our lab is now out in PLOS Pathogens! We created a panel of ACE2 variant cells and found that (pseudo)viruses with SARS-CoV spike, or the WT or N501Y SARS-CoV-2 spikes, differentially use the ACE2 protein surface during entry. This was a team effort, with Nidhi and Sarah on pseudotyped virus assays and molecular cloning, with Anna and Vini performing the BSL3 SARS-CoV-2 work. Great job, everyone!

The lab is awarded an ESI R35 from NIGMS!

Our application, titled “Recombinant DNA Technologies for Multiplex Genetic Assays in Human Cells” was funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute for General Medical Sciences. This five year, $250,000 direct cost per year grant will support our continued efforts pairing landing pad -based cell engineering with multiplex assays to unlock new aspects of protein and cell biology, as well as improving our understanding of human genetics. Goals include creating generalizable, multiplex methods for functional complementation, fluorescent transcriptional reporters, & large-scale cDNA screening. Thank you NIH NIGMS for supporting us with this wonderful funding mechanism!

Mutational Scanning Symposium 2021

The 2021 symposium was held remotely, and videos from roughly half of the talks are posted onto YouTube, at the CMAP_CEGS channel. This includes Kenny’s talk from the workshop portion this year. In contrast to his talk from last year (which really focused on the basic with few specifics), the talk from this year was much more about a specific example fitting into some of those more general considerations (with unpublished data to boot!).