Aseem Z. Ansari
Aseem Z. Ansari

Aseem Z. Ansari

Member, St. Jude Faculty

  • Chair, Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
  • R. J. Ulrich Endowed Chair

Departments

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow – Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
PhD – Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
BSc (Honours) – St. Xavier’s College, Bombay University, Bombay, India

Research Interests

  • Synthetic gene regulators (SynGRs) as precision-tailored therapeutics for personalized medicine
  • Artificial transcription factors (ATFs) to regulate cell fate programs and enable regenerative medicine
  • Specificity and Energy landscapes for SynGR/ATF design, genome annotation, and precision medicine
  • Chemical-Genetic dissection of RNA polymerase II transcription cycle 

Ansari Research Lab

Contact Information

Aseem Z. Ansari Chemical Biology & Therapeutics MS 1000, Room E9050A St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 262 Danny Thomas Place Memphis, TN 38105-3678

St. Jude Faculty List

Related Topics

News Releases

Selected Publications

Nemec CM, Singh AK, Ali A, Tseng SC, Ringelberg KJ, Ho Y, Hintermair C, Gasch AP, Akhtar MS, Eick D, Ansari AZ. Noncanonical CTD kinases regulate RNA polymerase II in a gene-class-specific manner. Nature Chem Bio 15(2):123-131, 2019. (*News & Views by Robles and Coin)

Bhimsaria D, Rodriguez-Martinez JA, Pan J, Rostum D, Korkmaz EN, Cui Q, Ramanathan P, Ansari AZ. Specificity Landscapes unmask submaximal binding site preferences of transcription factors. Proc Natl Acad Sci 115(45):E10586-10595, 2018.

Heiderscheit EA, Eguchi A, Spurgat MC, Ansari AZ. Reprogramming cell fate with artificial transcription factors. Review: FEBS Letters 592(6):888-900, 2018. PMID: 29389011

Erwin GS, Grieshop MP, Ali A, Qi J, Lawlor M, Kumar D, Ahmad I, McNally A, Teider N, Worringer K, Sivasankaran R, Syed DN, Eguchi A, Ashraf M, Xu M, Jeffery J, Mukhtar H, Srivastava AK, Faruq M, Bradner JE, Ansari AZ. Synthetic transcription elongation factors license transcription across repressive chromatin. Science 358(6370):1617-1622, 2017. PMID 29192133.

Rodríguez-Martínez JA, Reinke AW, Bhimsaria D, Keating AE, Ansari AZ. Combinatorial bZIP dimers display complex DNA/binding landscapes. Elife Feb 10;6, 2017. pii: e19272. PMC5349851.

Eguchi A, Wleklinski MJ, Spurgat MC, Heiderscheit EA, Kropornicka AS, Vu CK, Bhimsaria D, Swanson SA, Stewart R, Ranamathan P, Kamp TJ, Slukvin I, Thomson JA, Dutton JR, Ansari AZ. Reprogramming cell fate with a genome-scale library of artificial transcription factors. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113(51): E8257–E8266, 2016. PMC5187731.

Erwin GS, Grieshop MP, Bhimsaria D, Do TJ, Rodriguez-Martinez JA, Mehta C, Khanna K, Swanson SA, Stewart R, Thomson JA, Ramanathan P, Ansari AZ. Synthetic genome readers target clustered binding sites across diverse chromatin states. Proc Natl Acad Sci Nov 22;113(47):e7418-E7427, 2016. PMC5127382.

Rodriguez-Molina JB, Tseng SC, Simonett S, Taunton J, Ansari AZ. Engineered covalent inactivation of TFIIH-kinase impedes transition to productive elongation and results in widespread mRNA stabilization. Mol Cell Aug 4;63(3):433-444, 2016. PMC5122673.

Chasman D, Ho YH, Berry DB, Nemec CM, MacGilvray ME, Hose J, Merrill AE, Lee MV, Will JL, Coon JJ, Ansari AZ*, Craven M*, Gasch AP*. Pathway connectivity and signaling coordination in yeast stress-activated signaling network. Mol Syst Biol 10:759-769, 2014.

Eguchi A, Lee GO, Wan F, Erwin GS, Ansari AZ. Controlling gene networks and cell fate with precision-targeted DNA binding proteins and small molecule-based genome readers. Biochem J 462:397-413, 2014. PMC4205157.

Tan-Wong SM, Zaugg JB, Camblong J, Xu Z, Zhang DW, Mischo HE, Ansari AZ, Luscombe NM, Steinmetz LM, Proudfoot NJ. Gene loops enhance transcriptional directionality. Science 338:671-675, 2012. *(comment by M. Hampsey Science, 33:624-5).

Campbell ZT, Bhimsaria D, Valley CT, Rodriguez-Martinez JA, Menichelli E, Williamson JR, Ansari AZ *, Wickens M*. Cooperativity in RNA-Protein Interactions: Global Analysis of RNA Binding Specificity. Cell Rep 1:570-581, 2012.  PMC3375920. (Highlighted by editors at Cell on advances RNA 2012.).

Warren CL, Zhao J, Glass K, Rishi V, Ansari AZ, Vinson C. Fabrication of duplex DNA microarrays incorporating methyl/5/cytosine. Lab Chip 12:376-380, 2012.

Ansari AZ, Peterson-Kaufman KJ. A partner evokes latent differences between Hox Proteins.” Cell 147:1220-1221, 2011. PMID:22153067.

Ansari AZ, Rosner MR, Adler J. Har Gobind Khorana. Cell 147:1433-1435, 2011.

Davis SE, Mooney RA, Kanin EI, Grass J, Landick R, Ansari AZ. Mapping E. coli RNA polymerase and associated transcription factors and identifying promoters genome-wide. Methods Enzymol 498:449-471, 2011. PMID:21601080.

Tietjen JR, Donato LJ, Bhimsaria D, Ansari AZ. Sequence specificity and energy landscapes of DNA binding molecules. Methods Enzymol 497:3-30, 2011.

Tietjen JR, Zhang DW, Rodriguez-Molina JB, White BE, Akhtar MS, Heidemann M, Li X, Chapman RD, Shokat K, Keles S, Eick D, Ansari AZ. Chemical-genomic dissection of the CTD code. Nature Struct Mol Biol 17:1154-1161, 2010. *(Highlighted by Nature Chem Biology 6:699).

Arora PS, Ansari AZ. A Notch above other inhibitors. Nature 462:171-173, 2009.

Akhtar MS, Heidemann M, Tietjen JR, Zhang DW, Chapman RD, Eick D, Ansari AZ. TFIIH kinase places bivalent marks on the carboxy-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II. Mol Cell 34:387-393, 2009.

Last update: November 2019

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