Mission

The HARC Center is primarily focused on four viral proteins (IN, Tat, Rev, Vif) that perform essential regulatory and acccessory functions during the HIV lifecycle, as genetic information is being transmitted from viral RNA to integrated DNA to mRNA. We also have projects/collaborations on Env and Nef, and are using a proteomics approach to generate a comprehensive map of high quality, validated interactions for these proteins and others in the HIV genome.

Virus-host cell complexes range from binary protein-protein or protein-nucleic acid complexes to much larger multicomponent assemblies. The Center seeks to structurally characterize key HIV-host assemblies, including validation of known protein partners, and identification of new partners, expression and purification of relevant complexes, structure determination by NMR, crystallography and cryo-EM.