Speaker: Yang Yang, Postdoctoral Fellow - Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University

Title: Structural insights into the arms race between viruses and host immune system

Abstract: The ever-lasting battle between viruses and their hosts has driven the dramatic diversification of viruses and host immune system. Viral entry and viral genome replication are two essential processes in the virus life cycle and are major targets for host immune surveillance and antiviral drug intervening. Viruses have evolved various strategies to escape host immune responses and drug targeting. To keep up with the viruses and recognize ever-emerging viral pathogens, the host immune system generates a highly diverse repertoire of antibodies and immune cell receptors. This is accomplished by V(D)J recombination, a tightly controlled process initiated by recombination activating gene (RAG) recombinase. Through numerous high-resolution crystal and cryo-EM structures and accompanying biochemical characterization, my work has shed light on the structural and functional diversity of coronavirus entry machinery, provided a structural framework to overcome HIV-1 reverse transcriptase drug resistance, and illuminated the catalytic mechanism of RAG-family transposases/recombinases and evolution of host adaptive immunity.