Florida State University · BiologyFrancis Lab
Ashwanth Christopher Francis · Tallahassee, Florida
Research Focus
Dr. Ashwanth Christopher Francis's lab focuses on understanding how the HIV-1 virus navigates within a host cell to integrate its genetic material into the host genome. Specifically, the lab investigates the role of a host protein, CPSF6, in guiding the virus to specific sites within the cell nucleus where it can successfully insert its DNA. This research is crucial for developing strategies to combat HIV and improve public health outcomes related to viral infections.
HIV-1nuclear traffickingviral integrationCPSF6nuclear speckles
Research Aims
3AIM 01Explore how CPSF6 interacts with HIV-1 capsid during nuclear transport
AIM 02Visualize HIV-1 co-trafficking with host proteins in live cells
AIM 03Identify genomic sites where HIV-1 integrates its DNA
Skills the Lab Values
live-cell imagingcell culturemolecular cloningRNA sequencinggenomic mapping
Output against the department
Publications36bottom 6% of dept.972nd of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations1.5kbottom 9% of dept.937th of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.