Gan, Lu
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Education
- B.S., Physics, California Institute of Technology
- Ph.D., Biology, The Scripps Research Institute
- Postdoc, Strucutral Cell Biology, California Institute of Technology
Contact Information
Email: wwh6xu@virginia.edu
Website: https://www.anaphase.org/
Research Disciplines
Biology, Biophysics & Structural Biology, Cancer Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, Epigenetics, Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, Structural Biology
Research Interests
Chromosome organization; Nucleosome structure; Histone marks; Structural cell biology
Research Description
We aim to understand how eukaryotic cells control chromatin structure. Knowledge of chromatin-structure at the level of its nucleosome subunits inside cells will give far-reaching mechanistic insight into gene regulation, replication, cell proliferation, and development. We are testing hypotheses about how nucleosome DNA structure rearrange and how they change in their packing modalities in different cell states. Our lab uses both yeast and human cells as model systems and we employ state-of-the-art cryo electron tomography and gene editing to study the function of nuclear proteins and enzymes.