Makkuni Jayaram
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Biography
Makkuni Jayaram is a Professor of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research interest is in the biochemical mechanisms of site-specific DNA recombination. Over the past three decades, his research group has used the Flp site-specific recombinase as a template for understanding the chemistry, conformational dynamics and topological features of strand breakage/exchange reactions in nucleic acids. A second interest of the Jayaram laboratory concerns strategies devised by selfish DNA elements for moderating their selfishness so as to establish long-term peaceful coexistence with their host genomes.