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Julia is a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Prof. Fred Antson at the York Structural Biology Laboratory. She completed her PhD in Molecular Biology from Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in 2022. Previously, Julia worked on deciphering the mechanism of a prokaryotic immune system named BREX in Prof. Konstantin Severinov’s lab. She established self versus non-self discrimination mechanisms for Type I BREX from a bacterium Escherichia coli and Type V BREX from an archaeon Haloarcula hispanica.
Julia is currently focussed on prokaryotic viruses’ structure and their packaging machinery. She is especially interested in archaeal viruses infecting a halophilic archaeon Haloarcula hispanica. Archaeal organisms and their viruses provide a unique resource for uncovering the variety and complexity of microorganisms. Viruses of archaea encompass novel morphotypes not seen in viruses of bacteria or eukarya. Structures of virions derived by cryo-EM are crucial for understanding molecular mechanisms of virus assembly and for establishing evolutionary connections.