Rachel L. Huang

This study optimizes a yeast-based directed evolution platform to expand the substrate scope of EcLeuRS, enabling incorporation of noncanonical amino acids like ornithine into mammalian cells.

This paper improves the efficiency of noncanonical amino acid incorporation in mammalian cells by evolving tRNAEcLeu through directed evolution in mammalian cells.

This paper develops VADER, a virus-assisted directed evolution method for improving suppressor tRNAs in mammalian cells, resulting in more active and orthogonal tRNA mutants.

The paper shows that structural robustness of tyrosyl-tRNA synthetases affects their ability to be engineered for genetic code expansion, with MjTyrRS being more robust than EcTyrRS.