Chan, Henry (2012-2015)
Henry is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He joined the training program in 2012. His research mentor is Dr. Juli Feigon. He received a B.S. degree in 2008 and an M.S. degree in 2010 from the UCSD.
Mentor: Dr. Juli Feigon
Telomerase is a large RNA-protein complex responsible for elongating the telomere repeat DNA at the 3? ends of linear chromosomes, reversing the chromosomal shortening that occurs after replication. In Tetrahymena thermophila, the holoenzyme has been identified as a 500kDa complex consisting of the catalytic core, the reverse transcriptase and template RNA, and six other important suspected regulatory and tuning proteins. Of these six, the least well understood are p50, p75, p45, and p19 which together comprise the ?telomere adaptor sub complex? (TASC). Structural and functional studies using a combination of EM, x-ray crystallography, NMR and activity assays will shed some much needed light on one of the largest missing pieces of the telomerase puzzle
