Feng Guo

Position Titles

Professor, Biological Chemistry
Home Area Director, Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology

Biography

Dr. Guo is a structural biologist and biochemist who joined the UCLA School of Medicine faculty in July 2004. He earned his B.S. in Biophysics at the Nankai University and M.S. in Physical Chemistry at the Peking University, both in China. Dr. Guo received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. In graduate school, he studied the Cre-loxP site-specific DNA recombination using X-ray crystallography. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Thomas Cech at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he worked on the thermostability and crystal structure of large ribozymes.

Research Description

Structure and Function of Non-coding RNAs

The functions of RNA extend far beyond coding for amino acid sequences. The Guo research group is interested in elucidating how non-coding RNAs function by forming defined three-dimensional structures and by interacting with proteins. In particular, we are investigating how the primary transcripts of microRNAs are recognized and cleaved by the Drosha nuclease and its RNA-binding partner DGCR8, and how this reaction is affected by a heme cofactor bound to the DGCR8 protein. The projects are investigated using biochemistry, structural and cell biology methods.

Awards & Honors

Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award from the March of Dimes Foundation
2013 Oppenheimer Endowment Award