Current Research and Scholarly Interests
->What We Do:
Our lab studies novel (non-chromosomal) agents of genetic constancy and change and the mechanisms by which organisms and cells respond to such agents.
The genetic landscape faced by a living cell is constantly changing. Developmental transitions, environmental shifts, and pathogenic invasions lend a dynamic character to both the genome and its activity pattern. We study a variety of genetic change agents, as well as the natural mechanisms that are utilized by cells adapting to such agents. The change agents include a panoply of previously (and often still) uncharacterized DNA and RNA elements that straddle boundaries between genome, virome, and mobilome. The corresponding propagation and control mechanisms likewise span a spectrum between systems activated during normal development and systems for detecting and responding to foreign or unwanted genetic activity. At the root of these studies are searches for unexpected genetic and genomic entities and questions of how a cell can distinguish "self" versus "nonself" and "wanted" versus "unwanted" gene activity.
We make use of both model and non-model organisms in our work. The "simple" nematode C. elegans in a recurring tool in our experimental studies. C. elegans is small, easily cultured, and can readily be made to accept foreign DNA or RNA. The results of such experiments have outlined a number of concerted responses that recognize (and in most cases work to silence) the foreign nucleic acid. One such mechanism ("RNAi") responds to double stranded character in RNA: either as introduced experimentally into the organism or as produced from foreign DNA that has not undergone selection to avoid a dsRNA response. RNAi is not the only cellular defense against unwanted nucleic acid, and substantial current effort in the lab is also directed at identification of other triggers and mechanisms used in recognition and response to foreign information. Beyond C. elegans, we seek novel processes driving genetic constancy and change the lie outside of standard chromosomal inheritance. The latter studies have taken us to a number of studies with non-model organisms and toward a view that biology is best expanded by combining model organism approaches with a wide net for novel phenomena that includes examining wide diversity of non-model organisms.
------>Who we are:
PI: Andrew Fire, Professor of Pathology and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
Postdoctoral Fellows:
Dr. Dae-Eun Jeong (Ph.D. Pohang University of Science and Technology, 2017)
Dr. Orkan Ilbay (Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, 2019)
Dr. Matthew McCoy (Ph.D. Washington University, 2018)
Graduate Students:
Usman Enam [Stanford Genetics Ph.D. Program] (B.S. Johns Hopkins, 2020)
Drew Galls [Stanford Genetics Ph.D. Program] (B.S. Yale, 2021)
Janie Kim [Stanford Biology Ph.D. Program; Joint with Nicole Martinez Lab] (A.B. Princeton 2021)
Colette Benko [Stanford Developmental Biology, Ph.D. Program] (BMSc Biochemistry, WesternU 2022)
Undergraduate Students:
Talha Rao [Stanford '2026]
Visiting Scientist:
David Lipman (FDA CFSAN)
Laboratory Manager:
Karen Artiles (Ph.D. UC Santa Cruz, 2008)
Laboratory Specialist:
Krisztina Perez
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-> Joining The Fire Lab
We welcome new applicants to the lab.
Prospective postdoctoral applicants should send a resume and summary of research to Dr. Fire (afire <at> stanford <dot> edu), and arrange to have 3-4 letters of reference likewise sent to this address.
Prospective graduate students are encouraged to apply to the Stanford Genetics Ph.D. program (or to any of the biosciences Ph.D. programs): http://biosciences.stanford.edu/prospective/
Rotation Students: We welcome rotation students from any program at Stanford, with Spring being the preferred quarter. Email the PI.
We occasionally have undergraduate research opportunities. Email the PI at the above address.