Jina Lee

The paper shows that Chimalliviridae form a lipid membrane-bound EPI vesicle during early infection, which hosts transcription of the phage genome, and demonstrates the necessity of a second compartment, the phage nucleus, for genome replication.

The paper develops a CRISPRi-ART system to knock down protein expression in diverse bacteriophages and identifies essential genes, including many with unknown functions.

The paper shows a mobile intron in bacteriophage ΦPA3 uses its homing endonuclease to interfere with co-infecting phage ΦKZ, providing a competitive reproductive advantage.

This study identifies ChmC, a phage protein that binds RNA and facilitates mRNA transport through the phage nucleus-like compartment, essential for infection.