Structural Biology Program

The Dinshaw Patel Lab

Research

Pictured: Dinshaw Patel
Dinshaw Patel, PhD
Abby Rockefeller Mauze Chair of Experimental Therapeutics

Our group applies structural (cryo-EM, x-ray crystallography and NMR), biochemical and biophysical methods together with functional studies to investigate macromolecular-mediated recognition, regulation and catalysis. The ongoing major projects in the laboratory focus on the structural biology of CRISPR-Cas surveillance complexes and their suppression by anti-CRISPR proteins (in collaboration with Luciano Marraffini, Rockefeller), on Structure Maintenance of Chromosome Smc5/6 (with Xiaolan Zhao, MSKCC) and MRX (with John Petrini, MSKCC) complexes involved in double-strand break and stalled replication fork repair, and on complexes mediating the meiotic recombination pathway (with Scott Keeney, MSKCC). In addition, research is focused on protein-RNA complexes mediating the piRNA pathway (with Julius Brennecke, IMBA-Austria), on identification and characterization of small molecule inhibitors targeted to proteins of the cGAS-STING pathway and the SARS-CoV-2 family (with Thomas Tuschl, Rockefeller) and those that impact on proteins triggering the onset of acute myeloid leukemia (with Michael Kharas, MSKCC).

Our group retains an interest in the areas of structure-function studies of RNA interference mediated by siRNA pathway, and on post-translation histone and DNA modifications impacting on epigenetic regulation. Additional areas include RNA-mediated events ranging from cofactor recognition by riboswitches, catalysis by ribozymes and protein-RNA recognition events impacting on disease syndromes and the principles underlying the molecular basis of glycosphingolipid and phospholipid binding specificity by lipid transfer proteins.

 

Meeske, A. J., Jia, N., Cassel, A., Kozlova, A., Liao, J., Wiedman, M., Patel, D. J. & Marraffini, L. A. (2020). Phage-encoded anti-CRISPR enables full escape from type VIA CRISPR-Cas immunity. Science 369, 54-59.

Li, W., et al., Gozani, O., Patel, D. J. & Wang, Z. (2021). Molecular basis of nucleosomal H3K36 methylation by NSD methyltransferases. Nature 590, 498-503.

Rostol, J.T., Xie, W., Kuryavyi, V., Kao, K., Fromm, R., Patel, D. J. & Marraffini, L. A. (2021). The Card1 nuclease provides bacterial defense during Type III CRISPR immunity. Nature 590, 624-629.

Wang, J., Catania, S., Wang, C., de la Cruz, M. J., Rao, B., Madhani, H. & Patel, D. J. (2022). SNF2 ATPase remodels DNA methyltransferase to enable durable epigenetic memory. Mol. Cell 82, 1186-1198.

Yu, Y., Li, S., Ser, Z., Kuang, H., Than, T., Guan, D., Zhao, X. & Patel, D. J. Cryo-EM structure of DNA-bound Smc5/6 reveals DNA clamping enabled multi-subunit conformational changes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Scis. USA in press.

 

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Research Projects

Dinshaw Patel Lab Group

People

Pictured: Dinshaw Patel

Dinshaw Patel, PhD

Abby Rockefeller Mauze Chair of Experimental Therapeutics

  • The Patel laboratory studies the structural biology of macromolecular recognition, regulation and catalysis. Ongoing projects include structure-function studies of the CRISPR-Cas and cGAS-STING surveillance pathways, on the role of Structure Maintenance Chromosome complexes in mediating DNA double strand break repair, on the role of histone and DNA methylation in epigenetic regulation and on RNA-mediated processes ranging from riboswitches and ribozymes to those governing siRNA and piRNA pathways.
  • PhD, New York University
[email protected]
Email Address
212-639-7207
Office Phone
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Members

Marianna Teplova
Marianna Teplova

Senior Research Scientist

Vitaly V. Kuryavyi
Vitaly V. Kuryavyi

Senior Research Scientist

Puja Majumder

Research Scholar

Arpita Chakravarti
Arpita Chakravarti

Research Scholar

Shuxia Peng

Senior Research Scientist

Ahmad Alsomali

Senior Research Technician

Abhishek Suman

Research Scholar

Deeksha Waghela
Deeksha Waghela

Research Scholar

Zhiying Zhang
Zhiying Zhang

Research Scholar

Lyuqin Zheng
Lyuqin Zheng

Research Scholar

Hongwei Zhang
Hongwei Zhang

Research Scholar

Hansranie Singh
Hansranie Singh

Administrative Assistant

Chengliang Liu, Graduate Student
Chengliang Liu

Graduate Student

Wentao Zhao
Wentao Zhao

Research Scholar

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

  • Jamshetjee N. Tata Fellow (1961-1963)
  • AT&T Bell Laboratories Distinguished Technical Staff Award (1983)
  • Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Chair in Experimental Therapeutics, MSKCC (1992-current)
  • Distinguished Alumnus Award, New York University (1997)
  • Harvey Society, President (1998-1999)
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  • Member, National Academy of Sciences, USA (2009)
  • NIH Directors Transformative Research Grant with Thomas Tuschl and Uwe Ohler (2013)
  • Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, USA (2014)
  • FEZANA Jamshed and Shirin Guzdar Excellence in Profession Award (2014)
  • Einstein Professorship of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (2015)
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research (2019)
  • Inaugural Tan Jiazhen International Life Science Collaboration Award (2019)

Open Positions

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Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Dinshaw Patel discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Ankrin Therapeutics
    Intellectual Property Rights
  • Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
  • Biophysical Society of China
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Center for Life Sciences
    Professional Services and Activities
  • ETH Zürich
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Fudan University
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Harbin Institute of Technology
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Immunogenesis, Inc.
    Intellectual Property Rights
  • Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Professional Services and Activities
  • National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Shenzhen Bay Laboratory
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
  • Southern University of Science and Technology
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
  • Takeda Pharmaceuticals
    Intellectual Property Rights
  • The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Ventus Therapeutics
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
  • Westlake University
    Professional Services and Activities

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.


This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


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