Jason Weng is currently a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Biophysics PhD program where he is advised by Dr. Carlos Bustamante. Jason received his B.E. in Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry at Stony Brook University, where he studied the role of Pif1 family helicases in early stages of meiosis using genetic and biochemical methods.
Jason’s doctoral research focuses on investigating how heterology impacts a critical reaction during DNA repair by homologous recombination—strand exchange. Understanding how recombination machineries respond to heterology, including clarifying the mechanism(s) and energetics underlying strand exchange, will further our knowledge about how cells faithfully repair DNA damages.
As a Kavli ENSI fellow, Jason will study how the prokaryotic recombinase, RecA, accommodates sequence differences during strand exchange, an energetically uphill task, with and without external energy input by ATP hydrolysis. This project will allow us to better understand the mechanochemical behavior of this molecular machine, specifically in terms of how it harnesses different sources of energy (binding energy or ATP hydrolysis) to overcome different structural barriers as it executes strand exchange. Preliminary results have shown that RecA can bypass a three- or four-nucleotide insertion using binding energy alone. Further work will aim to characterize heterology tolerance by RecA when ATP is hydrolyzed and investigate the mechanism(s) that the enzyme employs to overcome the energetic challenges imposed by heterology on its substrates. As RecA also extends and underwinds DNA, this study may also pave the way to exploit RecA of its interesting mechanochemical properties as information-bearing nanotransducers.