Leonid Yurkovetskiy has been selected as a 2019 Award Recipient of the Charles A. King Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

Given the potential of his research project to further understanding of the fundamental biology of cancer, he was specifically awarded a 2019-2021 Sara Elizabeth O’Brien Trust Fellowship within the King Program.

The title of Lonya’s project is, “Mechanism of epigenetic silencing by the HUSH complex.”

The project springs from his discovery that the primate immunodeficiency virus accessory proteins Vpr and Vpx bind to and promote the DCAF1-Cul4A-ubiquitin-dependent degradation of the HUSH transcriptional silencing complex. The background for the experiments proposed in his fellowship can be found in his Nature Microbiology manuscript.

We’re much obliged to the reviewers of the fellowship applications, to The Charles A King Trust, and to the Sara Elizabeth O’Brien Trust.

Bruno Munari vividly demonstrates how the HUSH Complex components work together to silence the transcription of HIV-1, retroviruses, retro-elements, and a whole mess of other genetic elements in our cells.
Bruno Munari demonstrates how the HUSH components collaborate to silence the transcription of HIV-1, retroviruses, retro-elements, and a whole mess of other genetic elements in our cells.