Hideki Aihara
Phone Numbers
612-624-1491
612-625-5175
[email protected]
Office Address

312 Church St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

Hideki Aihara

Professor
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Research Publications

Our laboratory uses structural biology techniques such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to understand various important biological processes, especially protein-DNA and protein-RNA interactions relevant to virology and cancer. Topics of interest include how retroviruses (such as HIV and HTLV) integrate the viral genome into host chromosomes, how the unique proofreading machinery of coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2 in particular) can be inhibited to block virus replication, and how the antiviral human APOBEC DNA cytosine deaminase enzymes introduce mutations in cancer genomes. We are also interested in understanding and engineering cytosine deaminases and other DNA-modifying enzymes for genome-editing applications.

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Mission statement

Our laboratory uses structural biology techniques such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to study various important biological processes, especially protein-DNA and protein-RNA interactions relevant to virology and cancer. We are particularly interested in understanding how viral proteins operate to evade the host immunity, how human APOBEC proteins that protect against viral infections mutate (unfortunately) our genomic DNA to promote cancer evolution, and how these processes could be controlled. We are also interested in understanding and engineering cytosine deaminases and other DNA-modifying enzymes for genome editing applications.

Research statement

Our laboratory currently investigates the following topics:

  • How viruses integrate their genomes into host chromosomes to establish infection
  • How the human antiviral APOBEC deaminases mutate DNA, how viruses antagonize APOBECs, and how we could control APOBEC activity in cancer to suppress genomic mutations that lead to drug resistance and metastasis
  • Diverse mechanisms of bacterial DNA deaminase toxins and engineering them for genomic and epigenomic applications
  • Similarities and differences between metal ion-dependent host and viral nucleases