Research in the Luger Lab focuses on the structural biology of genome organization. We aim to understand the fundamental impact of chromatin architecture on all nuclear processes. We study the interaction of nucleosomes with nuclear factors, as well as structural and mechanistic aspects of the cellular machinery that assembles and disassembles chromatin during transcription, replication, and DNA repair. The evolution of eukaryotic chromatin structure is investigated through structural studies of archaeal and viral chromatin. We use a wide range of approaches ranging from structural biology, biophysics, molecular and cell biology.
keywords
chromatin / nucleosome structure and function, protein-DNA interactions, DNA replication, DNA repair, DNA transcription, histone chaperones, nucleosome dynamics, x-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry, SAXS, fluorescence, atomic force microscopy, analytical ultra centrifugation, evolution, electron microscopy, Archaea, giant viruses, eukaryogenesis, enzymology
