Richard Isaac, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry & Cell Biology
Biography
Dr. Isaac’s lab is focusing on the relationship between mitochondrial DNA packaging and expression and understanding the mechanisms that regulate the activity of this genome. Additionally, the lab interested in the structure and regulation of organellar genomes broadly, including those of chloroplasts and apicoplasts. The lab uses an multidisciplinary approach that combines genomics and bioinformatics, in vitro biochemistry, and molecular and cell biology to understand these biological processes.
He obtained his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Geeta Narlikar at the University of California, San Francisco studying how HP1 proteins play varied roles in heterochromatin establishment and maintenance. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Stirling Churchman at Harvard Medical School, where he developed mtFiber-seq, an approach that maps mitochondrial DNA accessibility across entire genomes at nucleotide resolution.
Publications
- Published on 8/26/2024
Tullius TW, Isaac RS, Dubocanin D, Ranchalis J, Churchman LS, Stergachis AB. RNA polymerases reshape chromatin architecture and couple transcription on individual fibers. Mol Cell. 2024 Sep 05; 84(17):3209-3222.e5. PMID: 39191261.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/12/2024
Isaac RS, Tullius TW, Hansen KG, Dubocanin D, Couvillion M, Stergachis AB, Churchman LS. Single-nucleoid architecture reveals heterogeneous packaging of mitochondrial DNA. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2024 Mar; 31(3):568-577. PMID: 38347148.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/28/2023
Kramer NJ, Prakash G, Isaac RS, Choquet K, Soto I, Petrova B, Merens HE, Kanarek N, Churchman LS. Regulators of mitonuclear balance link mitochondrial metabolism to mtDNA expression. Nat Cell Biol. 2023 Nov; 25(11):1575-1589. PMID: 37770567.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/21/2019
Isaac RS, Churchman LS. The Long and the Short of the RNA Polymerase C-Terminal Domain and Phase Separation. Mol Cell. 2019 Mar 21; 73(6):1087-1088. PMID: 30901560.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/19/2018
Isaac RS, McShane E, Churchman LS. The Multiple Levels of Mitonuclear Coregulation. Annu Rev Genet. 2018 Nov 23; 52:511-533. PMID: 30230928.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/20/2017
Isaac RS, Sanulli S, Tibble R, Hornsby M, Ravalin M, Craik CS, Gross JD, Narlikar GJ. Biochemical Basis for Distinct Roles of the Heterochromatin Proteins Swi6 and Chp2. J Mol Biol. 2017 Nov 24; 429(23):3666-3677. PMID: 28942089.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/28/2016
Isaac RS, Jiang F, Doudna JA, Lim WA, Narlikar GJ, Almeida R. Nucleosome breathing and remodeling constrain CRISPR-Cas9 function. Elife. 2016 Apr 28; 5. PMID: 27130520.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/21/2015
Zhao H, Ghirlando R, Alfonso C, Arisaka F, Attali I, Bain DL, Bakhtina MM, Becker DF, Bedwell GJ, Bekdemir A, Besong TM, Birck C, Brautigam CA, Brennerman W, Byron O, Bzowska A, Chaires JB, Chaton CT, Cölfen H, Connaghan KD, Crowley KA, Curth U, Daviter T, Dean WL, Díez AI, Ebel C, Eckert DM, Eisele LE, Eisenstein E, England P, Escalante C, Fagan JA, Fairman R, Finn RM, Fischle W, de la Torre JG, Gor J, Gustafsson H, Hall D, Harding SE, Cifre JG, Herr AB, Howell EE, Isaac RS, Jao SC, Jose D, Kim SJ, Kokona B, Kornblatt JA, Kosek D, Krayukhina E, Krzizike D, Kusznir EA, Kwon H, Larson A, Laue TM, Le Roy A, Leech AP, Lilie H, Luger K, Luque-Ortega JR, Ma J, May CA, Maynard EL, Modrak-Wojcik A, Mok YF, Mücke N, Nagel-Steger L, Narlikar GJ, Noda M, Nourse A, Obsil T, Park CK, Park JK, Pawelek PD, Perdue EE, Perkins SJ, Perugini MA, Peterson CL, Peverelli MG, Piszczek G, Prag G, Prevelige PE, Raynal BD, Rezabkova L, Richter K, Ringel AE, Rosenberg R, Rowe AJ, Rufer AC, Scott DJ, Seravalli JG, Solovyova AS, Song R, Staunton D, Stoddard C, Stott K, Strauss HM, Streicher WW, Sumida JP, Swygert SG, Szczepanowski RH, Tessmer I, Toth RT, Tripathy A, Uchiyama S, Uebel SF, Unzai S, Gruber AV, von Hippel PH, Wandrey C, Wang SH, Weitzel SE, Wielgus-Kutrowska B, Wolberger C, Wolff M, Wright E, Wu YS, Wubben JM, Schuck P. A multilaboratory comparison of calibration accuracy and the performance of external references in analytical ultracentrifugation. PLoS One. 2015; 10(5):e0126420. PMID: 25997164.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/25/2012
Rougemaille M, Braun S, Coyle S, Dumesic PA, Garcia JF, Isaac RS, Libri D, Narlikar GJ, Madhani HD. Ers1 links HP1 to RNAi. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jul 10; 109(28):11258-63. PMID: 22733737.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/1/2011
Treacy DJ, Sankaran SM, Gordon-Messer S, Saly D, Miller R, Isaac SR, Kosinski-Collins MS. Implementation of a project-based molecular biology laboratory emphasizing protein structure-function relationships in a large introductory biology laboratory course. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2011; 10(1):18-24. PMID: 21364097.
Read at: PubMed