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Overview & Goals

The Mura Lab employs experimental and computational approaches to understand the structure, function/dynamics, and evolution of RNA- and DNA-based protein assemblies. In particular, we seek a deeper understanding of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) assemblies – What these protein/RNA complexes look like at atomic resolution (structure), their assembly pathways and dynamical behavior (function), and the interrelationships between Sm and Sm-like systems (evolution).

Discovered as the antigens in the autoimmune disease lupus, Sm proteins are now known to form a broad, evolutionarily-conserved family that play key roles in most aspects of RNA metabolism (including mRNA splicing), as well as in bacterial cell-cell communication networks ("quorum sensing"). Sm-based complexes, such as the spliceosome, exceed the ribosome in terms of both size and architectural complexity, thereby providing an immensely rich area for ongoing studies. Current work focuses on Sm systems drawn from both a well-established context (splicing) and a more recently emerging area (quorum sensing) that is of major biomedical significance because of its involvement in biofilm-mediated bacterial pathogenesis. The research program being developed to pursue this work is necessarily highly interdisciplinary, relying particularly heavily on methods from structural biology (e.g., crystallography) and computational chemistry (e.g., molecular dynamics simulations), in addition to traditional wet-lab biochemistry.

News & Announcements

For general group news, see http://muralab.org/news. What follows below are general announcements of topical/local interest to StrucBio.

January 2011

For any group members interested in a general introduction to some computational biology and bioinformatics topics — the new UVaCompBio series begins next month.

June 10, 2010

A new "Structural biology, Computational biology, & Molecular biophysics" website is up; check it out at http://wiki.chem.virginia.edu/SbCbMb/.

June 10, 2010

  • There will be a temporary (~1h) power outage for the emergency/backup power sockets (the red sockets) Wednesday, June 16.
  • The following items need to be moved over to accompanying grey (non-emergency) sockets by that morning:
    • backroom (where microfluidizer is) Sorvall Legend RT+ table-top centrifuge
    • APC units (2) in computer/kitchen room
    • 1 tabletop centrifuge in the shaker incubator room (Rm 275)
    • 2 plugs (other tabletop centrifuge / hot plate?) by Tomek's bench (Rm 295)
    • We put tape over the rest (2 sockets by Iza's bench, 2 sockets by Justin/Jackie's bench, and 2 sockets behind the crystallization microscope bench)

Current Projects

This is a listing of projects current in our lab. You may want to look at the guides on how to use the data repositories and issue trackers.

This is the old(er) projects page -- Projects

This is the current list of the Potential Targets for our lab (Hfq) -- PotentialTargets

  • Use Trac - An introduction on how to use a project/issues tracker.
  • Subversion (SVN) - An introduction on how to use the data repository.

Lab News & Issues

Progress Reports

Computational Projects

(severely outdated...)

Group Members

Group Funding

Our Publications

Group Calendar

Group Meeting, Journal Club, Etc.

Group Responsibilities & ToDo Lists

Please see the following pages for lab management issues, your assigned responsibilities, etc.:

  • GroupResponsibilities → Recurrent, preventive maintenance types of things that require attention on a regular basis
  • ToDo → Specific things that require attention either in the short- or long-term
  • Lab Tape Colors → A list of the tape colors used by people in the Mura/Columbus labs

Infrastructure & Facilities Issues

Research: Experimental / Wet-lab Sections

List of lab Standard Operating Procedures

Special sections of interest:

  • Lab Passwords (used for equipment and instrumentation access in the lab, etc.)

Research: Computation / Theory Sections

  • OurMD — Portal into MD-related things (local tips, tutorials, projects, scripts, etc...)
  • OurBioInfo — Portal into bioinformatics-related information of local relevance
  • OurMATLAB — Portal into MATLAB-related information of local relevance

Research: Literature Search, Journals, Etc.

Miscellany / Unclassified

Copying, Faxing, Etc.

Reimbursements

Poster-printing

Manuscript Preparation

General Advice

For Everyone

For Grad Students

UVa Graduate Courses

General UVa or Charlottesville Info

Wiki Help & Information

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