Stephen Hancock

Assistant Professor

Name

Contact Info

Phone:
Office:
Science Complex, Room 5301 K
Email:
Hours:
3-4 Mon; 3:30-4:30 Wed

Education

B.S., Biology
York College of Pennsylvania

Ph.D., Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology
University of Pittsburgh

Postdoctoral Associate
University of California, Los Angeles

Areas of Expertise

Protein biochemistry
Protein-nucleic acid interactions and dynamics
Bacteriophage-host interactions
Transcription and transcriptional regulation

Research Interests

Our research group is interested in understanding the structural, chemical, and thermodynamic mechanisms by which DNA-binding proteins facilitate the various DNA transactions that are essential for life.  Recently our work has sought to address a rather simple question - Why do bacteriophages express so many DNA-binding proteins and what are these proteins doing to support the physiology of phage propagation.  To answer this general question, students in our group employ numerous tools to identify and characterize essential phage encoded DNA-binding proteins including bioinformatics, bacterial recombineering, transcriptional profiling by qPCR, DNA-binding site profiling, protein purification, thermodynamic measurements of protein DNA-binding by EMSA and fluorometry, UV-VIS, X-Ray crystallography, and molecular dynamics simulations.