2024

• Congratulations to Peini on her collaborative paper published in J. Biol. Chem. .. August 2024

• Welcome aboard, Julia Hardy .. August 5, 2024

• Welcome aboard, Yongchang Zhu .. July 5, 2024

• Congratulations to Jun, Qingrong, and Juntaek! Our paper on the function role of Elf1-CTD in TFIIH recruitment was published in Nat. Commun. .. July 2024

• Congratulations to Jun and everyone in the lab! Our paper on the novel role of CSB on R-loop resolution was published in Nat. Commun. .. July 2024

• Congratulations to Qingrong! Our collaborative work on the structural characterization of rapid evolution of de novo rice proteins with Prof. Long was published in Genome Biol. Evol. .. June 2024

• Congratulations to Valorie Gonzalez for her MS degree .. June 2024

• Our collaborative work with Prof. Jin Zhang was accepted by Mol. Cell. Happy to be involved in this wonderful work! .. March 1, 2024

• Congratulations to Peini on her first paper in my lab published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. .. Feb 23, 2024

• Our collaborative work with Prof. Dmitry Lyumkis was published in Nat. Commun. .. Jan 15, 2024

• Congratulations to Jun and everyone in the lab! Our paper on Pol II-Elf1-Rad26 was published in Proc.  Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. on-line .. January 9, 2024

2023

• Congratulations to Juntaek and everyone in the lab! Our paper on the structural basis of transcription recognition of Six-Letter Expanded DNA Alphabets by E. coli RNA polymerase was published in Nat. Commun. on-line .. December 12, 2023

• Welcome aboard, Qingpeng Lin & Christine Vu .. December 11, 2023

• Congratulations to Juntaek and everyone in the lab! Our paper on the structural basis of transcription recognition of hydrophobic unnatural base pairs by T7 RNA polymerase was published in Nat. Commun. on-line .. January 13, 2023

• Congratulations to Juntaek on his new faculty position at Kyung Hee University! We wish him all the best for his new exciting journey! .. January 4, 2023

2022

• Welcome aboard, Valorie Gonzalez .. November 2022

• Welcome aboard, Haoqing Xu .. October 2022

• Welcome aboard, Peini Hou .. June 1, 2022

• Congratulations to Juntaek and everyone in the lab! Our paper on elucidate the structural basis of transcription arrest by Py-Im was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. .. January 12, 2022.

2021

• Congratulations to Jun on his new faculty position at Zhejiang University! We wish him all the best for his new exciting journey .. December 17, 2021

• Congratulations to Juntaek and everyone in the lab! Our paper on understanding how non-covalent DNA-binding small molecule trapped RNA polymerase II was accepted by Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. December 10, 2021

• Congratulations to Jun, Bernice, and Juntaek! Our collaborative work on the mechanism of Rad26-assisted rescue of stalled RNA polymerase II in transcription-coupled repair was published in Nature Communications on-line .. December 3, 2021

• Our book chapter on “Molecular Basis for Transcriptional Fidelity Control by RNA polymerase II” was published by Royal Society of Chemistry Press. .. November 30, 2021

• Welcome aboard, Haoqing Xu .. October 1, 2021

• Congratulations to Juntaek and everyone in the lab! Our paper related to transcription recognition of unnatural base pair was published in Nature Chem. Biol. .. August 1, 2021

• Congratulations to Jun and Jenny! Our paper revealing the strand-specific effect of Rad26 and TFIIS in rescuing transcriptional arrest by CAG trinucleotide repeat slip-outs was published in Nucleic Acids Res. .. July 21, 2021

• Congratulations to Juntaek and everyone in the lab! Our paper was accepted by Nature Chem. Biol. .. May 10, 2021

• Congratulations to Jun and Jenny! Our paper on the new roles of Spt4/5 and Elf1 in transcription of non-B structures was published in Nucleic Acids Res. online .. April 20, 2021

• Congratulations to Juntaek! Our collaborative work related to SARS-CoV2 was published in Nature online .. March 16, 2021

• Congratulations to Jun! Our collaborative work with Prof. Shan Zha's group related to ATM structure and function was published in J. Immun. .. March 15, 2021

2020

• Congratulations to Jun and everyone in the lab! Our paper on CSB as an ATP-dependent processivity factor was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. September 28, 2020 

• Congratulations to Jun and everyone in the lab! Our paper on the molecular mechanism of Pol II nucleosome bypass by CSB was accepted in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. August 28, 2020 

• Our commentary paper on genome-wide transcription-coupled repair in yeast chromatin was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. August 2020

• Congratulations to Bernice on earning her Master's Degree! Wishing her all the best as she embarks on her journey as a graduate student in the east coast .. August 14, 2020 

• Congratulations to Juntaek, Jun, and Jenny! Our paper on the structural basis of RNA polymerase II stall at Gh, an Oxidative DNA lesion, was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. April 13, 2020.

2019

• Congratulations to Jun on the new addition (Saoirse) to his family! .. July 18, 2019

• Congratulations to Jenny on her promotion in the industry! .. July 1, 2019

• Congratulations to Dr.  Wang on his promotion to Professor! .. July 1, 2019

• Congratulations to Jun & Juntaek! Our collaborative work on solving the structure of RNA polymerase II elongation complex stalled at a cyclobutane pyrimidine primer lesion was published in J. Struct. Biol. .. June 11, 2019

• Congratulations to Juntaek on his new role as a proud parent of his baby (Sangwoo)! .. April 16, 2019

• Congratulations to Juntaek! Our collaborative work on transcription errors caused by 8-oxo-guanine DNA damage was published in J. Biol. Chem. .. March 29, 2019

• Congratulations to Wei, Jun, and Jenny! Our paper on the molecular basis of Rhp26 chromatin remodeling was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A .. March 13, 2019

• Congratulations to Jun and Juntaek! Our review on DNA lesion-induced RNA polymerase II arrest was published online in Methods .. February 22, 2019

• Congratulations to Jun! Our collaborative work on understanding the mechanism of intrinsic cleavage of RNA polymerase II was published in Nature Catalysis .. February 11, 2019

• Congratulations to Wei on his new faculty position at Shandong University .. January 2019

2018

• Congratulations to Wei, Jun, and Jenny! Our work on understanding the structural basis of DNA lesion recognition for eukaryotic TC-NER was published in DNA Repair (Amst) .. November 2018

• Congratulations to Jenny on her promotion in the industry! .. September 1, 2018

• Congratulations to Jun! Our collaborative work titled "Structural basis of RNA polymerase I stalling at UV light-induced DNA damage" was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A (featured Cover article) .. August 20, 2018

• Welcome aboard, Bernice (Undergraduate & BS/MS program) .. June 2018

• Welcome aboard, Juntaek Oh (Post-doc) .. March 1, 2018

• Congratulations to Wei and Jenny! Our work on elucidating the structural basis of transcriptional stalling and bypass of abasic DNA lesion was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A .. February 27, 2018

• Congratulations to Wei! Our collaborative work on identifying H3K4me1-associated proteins at mammalian enhancers was published in Nat. Genet. .. January 2018

2017

• Congratulations to Jun, Wei and Jenny on their paper titled “Structural basis for the initiation of eukaryotic transcription-coupled DNA repair” is published in Nature .. November 30, 2017

• Congratulations to Jenny on her new position in the industry. All the best to her new career! .. September 25, 2017

• Congratulations to Wei, Liang, and Jenny on their work in understanding how RNA pol II senses 6-meA modifications. The work was recently published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. .. September 21, 2017

• Congratulations to Liang, Wei, Ji, and Jenny on their work in understanding how RNA pol II gets stalled and bypasses the regioisomeric DNA alkylations. The work was recently published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. August 7, 2017

• Congratulations to Liang on his new faculty position at the Sun Yat-Sen University as a receipient of the talented Young 1000 award .. March 2017

2016

• Congratulations to Ji on her success in the Master's thesis defense! .. November 7, 2016

• Congratulations to Liang, Wei, Jenny and Ji on their work in understanding how RNA pol II senses non-covlaent minor groove barriers via a conserved motif. The work was recently published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A .. November 1, 2016

• Congratulations to Liang, Wei, Ji and Jenny on their work in understanding the molecular mechanism by which pol II senses minor groove obstructions. It was just published online at Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A .. October 17, 2016

• Congratulations to Liang, Wei, Jenny and Ji on their work in understanding the functional interplay between NTP leaving group and base pair recognition during pol II transcription accepted by Nucleic Acids Res. .. March 24, 2016

• Congratulations to Liang! Our collaborative work related to pol II backtracking mechanism was accepted by Nature Commun. .. March 14, 2016

• Congratulations to Ji and Liang on the acceptance of their point-of-view paper suggesting pol II acts as a selective sensor for DNA lesions and endogenous DNA modification in Transcription .. March 14, 2016

2015

• Congratulations to Dr. Wang on his promotion to Associate Professor with tenure! .. July 1, 2015

• Our research paper entitled "Molecular basis for 5-carboxycytosine recognition by RNA polymerase II elongation complex" was published online at Nature. Congratulations to everyone! We are also featured on the UCSD blog .. June 29, 2015

• Welcome aboard, Nikki Phanhthilath (Undergarduate) .. March 23, 2015

• Welcome aboard, Anne Winkels (Visiting Student) .. March 18, 2015

2014

• Our "Leucine latch" paper was published online at Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (accepted on Thanksgiving eve). Congratulations to Lanfeng and Jenny! In this work, we identified a novel conserved protein motif, termed the “leucine latch”, at the N-terminus of Rhp26. The leucine latch motif mediates the autoinhibition of the ATPase and chromatin remodeling activities of Rhp26 via its interaction with the core ATPase domain. This work provides important novel mechanistic insights into the autoregulation of CSB/ERCC6 proteins ... December 15, 2014

• Our research paper entitled "Pyrene-Based Quantitative Detection of the 5-Formylcytosine Loci Symmetry in the CpG Duplex Content during TET-Dependent Demethylation" was published online at Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. .. August 27, 2014

• Our research paper entitled “Strand-specific (asymmetric) contribution of phosphodiester linkages on RNA polymerase II transcriptional efficiency and fidelity” was published online at Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. July 29, 2014

• Our paper in collaboration with Dr. Changsun Eun and Prof. J. Andrew McCammon on TFIIS conformational change was accepted by PLoS ONE.  Congratulations! .. April 28, 2014

• Our review paper entitled "Molecular basis of transcriptional fidelity and DNA lesion-induced transcriptional mutagenesis" was published online at DNA Repair .. April 21, 2014

• Our research paper in collaboration with Dr. Xuhui Huang on RNA polymerase II translocation was published online at Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. April 21, 2014

• Our research paper entitled "Dissecting the chemical interactions and substrate structural signatures governing RNA polymerase II trigger loop closure by synthetic nucleic acid analogues" was published online at Nucleic Acids Res. .. April 1, 2014

• Welcome aboard, Wei Wang (Post-doc) .. February 6, 2014

• Welcome aboard, Vi Nguyen (P1) .. February 5, 2014

• Welcome aboard, Jun Xu (Post-doc) .. January 21, 2014

2013

• Our research paper entitled "A Chemical Perspective on Transcriptional Fidelity: Dominant Contributions of Sugar Integrity Revealed by Unlocked Nucleic Acids" was published online and selected as an inside cover in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl... November 7, 2013

• Our research paper entitled "A chemical probe targets DNA 5-formylcytosine sites and inhibits TDG excision, polymerases bypass, and gene expression" was published in Chem. Sci. .. October 9, 2013

• Welcome aboard, Jenny(Ji) (Undergraduate) .. October 7, 2013

• Welcome aboard, Caroline (Undergraduate) .. August 26, 2013

• Our research paper entitled "Effect of a Monofunctional Phenanthriplatin-DNA Adduct on RNA Polymerase II Transcriptional Fidelity and Translesion Synthesis" was published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. .. August 8, 2013

• Our review paper entitled “Understanding the Molecular Basis of RNA Polymerase II Transcription” was published in Isr. J. Chem. .. May 17, 2013

• Welcome aboard, Lintai (Visiting Scholar) .. March 1, 2013

• Welcome aboard, Su (Post-doc) & Ilean (Rotation Student) .. January 7, 2013

2012

• Welcome aboard, Christina (Rotation Student) .. December 2012

• Welcome aboard, Steve (Rotation Student) .. October 2012

• Welcome aboard, Sarah (Undergraduate) .. September 2012

• Welcome aboard, Liang (Post-doc) .. July 23, 2012

• Our research paper entitled “5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine reduce the rate and substrate specificity of RNA polymerase II transcription” was published in Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. .. July 22, 2012

• Welcome aboard, Victor (Pharmacy Student) .. July 16, 2012

• Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Kimmel Scholar Award .. July 1, 2012

• Our research paper entitled “Dissecting Chemical Interactions Governing RNA Polymerase II Transcriptional Fidelity” was published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. .. April 17, 2012

• Welcome aboard, Monica (Undergraduate) .. January 9, 2012

2011

• Welcome aboard, Christine and James (High School Students) .. July 25, 2011

• Welcome aboard, Matt (Post-doc) .. June 13, 2011

• Welcome aboard, Yan-Yan and Selena (Undergraduates) .. April 2011

• Welcome aboard, Alan (Undergraduate) .. February 25, 2011

• Welcome aboard, Qiaozhen (Post-doc) .. February 2011

• Welcome aboard, Jenny (SRA) .. January 24, 2011

2010

• Welcome aboard, Lanfeng (Post-doc) .. October 13, 2010

• Welcome aboard, Julia (SRA) .. October 1, 2010

• Our research paper entitled “RNA polymerase II trigger loop residues stabilize and position the incoming nucleotide triphosphate in transcription” was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. September 7, 2010

• UCSD Academic Senate Research Grant .. July 1, 2010

• Our research paper entitled “Structure and mechanism of RNA polymerase II stalled at an antineoplastic monofunctional platinum-DNA adduct” was published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. .. May 25, 2010

• Wang Lab’s first synchrotron data collection at ALS .. February 22, 2010

• Welcome aboard, Justine and Pei Chi (Undergraduates) .. February 2010