Home Department: Human Biology
Supported by: Dean of Research
Mentor: Lucy Shapiro, Developmental Biology

Johnny Xu is studying noncoding DNA in the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus that are essential for them to continue living. Uncovering their functions will provide new insights into the function of how the chromosome is able to orchestrate Caulobacter's unique ability to divide asymmetrically. This research will yield valuable paradigms for understanding the bacterial life cycle which will prove to be useful to the development of antibiotics.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 26, 2015:

Measuring the Methylation State and Accessibility of a Nondisruptable Intergenic Region of Caulobacter crescentus

Johnny Xu¹, Michael Melfi², Lucy Shapiro¹
[Departments of Developmental Biology¹ and Chemistry², Stanford University]