Dinshaw J. Patel

Using NMR and crystallographic techniques, investigated protein and nucleic acid architecture, recognition, regulation, and catalysis. Structure-function studies brought mechanistic insights into the readout of site-specific lysine modification marks on histones and their contribution to the establishment and maintenance of chromatin-mediated epigenetic on/off states. Advanced RNA silencing field through structural characterization of recognition events associated with targeting duplex length, providing a mechanistic framework for guided strand alignment and site-specific cleavage of paired messenger RNA mediated by Argonaute, the key protein exhibiting 'slicer' activity, within the RNA-induced silencing complex. Studies of sensing domains of riboswitches and ribozymes that catalyze carbon-carbon bond formation highlight how RNAs containing only four nucleotides can generate precisely defined pockets exhibiting exquisite shape-complementarity for metabolite recognition and discrimination as well as chemical catalysis. Studies on covalent stereoisomeric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-DNA adducts established link between lesion chirality and the nature and extent of helical perturbations, while structural studies on antitumor drug-DNA complexes identified recognition principles underlying sequence-dependent targeting of the double helix.