Vertebrate retrotransposons are the future of gene therapy. But how do they insert their genes? 🔥🔥 Thrilled to share our new work now published with Kathy Collins, @nogaleslab.bsky.social @berkeleymcb.bsky.social where we investigate this with #cryoEM & biochemistry in 🧪 and cells! #RNAsky #TEsky

We identified features of the avian R2 retrotransposons that we previously identified and a newly identified element from a turtle genome that support transgene insertion (2/n)

The expanded zinc finger array within these new R2s covers the upstream target site entirely to enable more precise junction formation (3/n)

Besides the initiation of insertion, we could also determine the #cryoEM structure of another biochemical intermediate where the first strand synthesis and second strand nicking has completed (4/n)

It was a joy ride to be working on this project alongside Anthony Rodríguez-Vargas, @nozhathassan.bsky.social, Briana Van Treeck and my fearless mentors Kathy and @nogaleslab.bsky.social! And thanks for the very important support from the NIH, @hhmi.org and @damonrunyon.org for this work! (5/n)