Brittney Thornton

Protein engineering | CRISPR-Cas genome editing tools 🛠️
Genentech, former PhD student in the Savage Lab (@SavageCatsOnly) and Doudna Lab at UC Berkeley

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

@CatAstro_Piyush We visualized this in ChimeraX with the ISDra2 ternary structure from Sasnauskas et al. (2023) (PDB ID: 8EXA). Attribute values were assigned per residue from a .defattr with max enrichment values – you could also reassign the b-factor values in the PDB file.

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

Excited to share our new preprint on mutational scanning of the TnpB RNP! We identify several highly activating, single-position mutations in TnpB’s protein and reRNA. These datasets enabled us to engineer enhanced TnpB protein variants (>50x plant editing levels compared to WT).

[Savage Lab @SavageCatsOnly]

What's better than 1 deep mutational scanning (DMS) library? 2! In a new pre-print @BW_Thornton and @rachelfweissman et al. map the mutational landscape of ISDra2 TnpB protein and reRNA and leverage these datasets to engineer highly active variants (1/9)

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

Congratulations to the entire team--it's been an amazing experience working with everyone!

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

In addition to laying the groundwork for future engineering, @rachelfweissman and I hope our characterization of several evolutionarily-accessible, activating mutations will provide insights into TnpB evolution and TnpB’s function within insertion sequences.

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

Congratulations to our amazing advisor @dfsavage ! @SavageCatsOnly are proud (and ready to celebrate)

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

@DarzacqClaire Thanks Claire!!

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

Couldn’t be happier to finally be qual-ified 🥳 and be able to celebrate in-person with the best labmates!

[Savage Lab @SavageCatsOnly]

Like and RT this tweet to congratulate Savage Cat @BW_Thornton for passing her qualifying exam and ascending to PhD Candidate! @berkeleyMCB 🥳

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

Maybe some of the best news I've heard in 2020? Congrats to one of my grad student mentors, Jennifer Doudna! Really grateful for the opportunities I've had to grow under her mentorship while also learning from other amazing colleagues in the lab.

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

BREAKING NEWS:
The 2020 #NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

Congratulations to our newest #NobelPrize laureate Jennifer Doudna.

From this picture we can imagine that she was happy to find out she had been awarded this year’s Chemistry Prize!

[Brittney Thornton @BW_Thornton]

Excited to be a part of the team! :)

[Savage Lab @SavageCatsOnly]

Welcome to our newest Savage Cats, Brittney Thornton (@BW_Thornton) and Julia Tartaglia (@juliaamber10)! Look for great things to come 👩‍🔬🧬
@berkeleyMCB

[Savage Lab @SavageCatsOnly]

Welcome to our newest Savage Cats, Brittney Thornton (@BW_Thornton) and Julia Tartaglia (@juliaamber10)! Look for great things to come 👩‍🔬🧬
@berkeleyMCB

[Gavin Knott @gavinjknott]

Excited to share our recent work on #phage anti-CRISPR mechanisms just published in @eLife! A tale of structure, function, and host-pathogen co-evolution https://t.co/xmYNtXgCC9. Huge thanks to a team of talented scientists from the Arkin lab and @doudna_lab!