Our laboratory is interested in the development and application of strategies and technologies that enable the high-throughput/large-scale exploration of biological function. These efforts typically take advantage of automation and robotics to achieve the efficiencies and speed required to realize the desired rates of data generation and discovery. This cutting-edge infrastructure has been applied to a number of important biomedical areas to achieve new understanding and new therapeutic opportunities.
Our work on the large-scale annotation of enzyme function is helping to define the metabolic repertoire that exists in Nature and is providing new insights into the contributions of the gut microbiome to human health, the realization of new chemical processes for industry, and expanding our understanding of critical environmental issues, including global nutrient cycles and the evolution of complex microbial communities. Our high-resolution structural and functional analysis of the mammalian immune system has resulted in unprecedented understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control immunity and are guiding the development of novel strategies and reagents (e.g., biologics) for the treatment of infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancers.