Houra Merrikh, Ph.D.

Professor, Biochemistry

: houra.merrikh@Vanderbilt.Edu
: (615) 343-3846
: 639E Light Hall
: More Information/Publications

Areas of Interest: Cancer Biology; Protein Structure & Function; Natural Products; Synthetic & Medicinal Chemistry; High-Throughput Technology; Mass Spectrometry & Omics Analysis; Imaging; Spectroscopy; X-ray Crystallography; Computational Biology

Member: VI4; VICC; VMI

Our lab uses a variety of cutting edge tools to study collisions between DNA replication forks and RNA polymerases. These include in vivo single molecule microscopy, deep sequencing, bioinformatics, and lab-based experimental evolution. We pair these new technologies with classical genetics and molecular biology techniques, typically using the model bacterium Bacillus subtilis. This naturally competent bacteria grows quickly and is genetically tractable making experiments fast and efficient. In recent years we have also begun studying DNA replication in pathogenic bacteria including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella enterica.