Regular biography
Andrew Santiago-Frangos is an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, affiliated with the Department of Biology. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of bacterial and archaeal CRIS, including CRISPR integration complexes and immune signaling pathways. He investigates how CRISPR systems generate DNA-based memories of past infections and how these systems can be repurposed for medical and biotech applications. Santiago-Frangos has contributed to the development of an RNA-guided Csm system for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA. His work bridges computational biology, genetics, and microbiology, with affiliations in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology, and Genomics and Computational Biology.
Scholar-generated biography
Andrew Santiago-Frangos is a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania focusing on CRISPR-Cas molecular diagnostics, RNA-protein interactions, and biochemistry. His work explores the mechanisms of RNA chaperone Hfq in bacterial sRNA regulation, including its role in sRNA competition and RNA annealing. He investigates CRISPR-Cas systems, particularly their applications in sequence-specific diagnostics and viral defense. His research also includes the structural and functional analysis of Cas proteins and their interactions with CRISPR RNA. Santiago-Frangos has contributed to understanding how viral proteins modulate host defense systems and how CRISPR systems can be harnessed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.