# Sun Hur, Ph.D. (She/ Her/ Hers) Oscar M. Schloss, MD Professor of Pediatrics Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston ![Sun Hur Photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum9451/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/biophysics/files/sun58181-3000w.jpg?itok=OimPIy0B) location\_on Immune Disease Institute, Center for Life Sciences Building, Room 3095 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA 02115 smartphone [617 713-8250]() email laptop\_windows [Hur Laboratory Home Page](https://www.hurlab.org/) laptop\_windows [Hur Lab Publications](https://www.childrenshospital.org/research/labs/hur-laboratory/publications) laptop\_windows [Harvard Catalyst Profile & Publications](https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/59239) Our laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms of the vertebrate immune system. We are particularly interested in protein aggregates, namely “functional aggregates”, that play increasingly important and common functions in immune systems. Our interest in functional aggregates started with our investigation of the innate immune receptors, RIG-I-like receptors, which recognize viral RNAs during infection and activate the antiviral immune response. We discovered that RIG-I-like receptors and their downstream signaling molecules assemble into higher order oligomers (i.e. filaments) during viral RNA detection and signal transduction. We additionally showed that their functions depend upon tightly controlled assembly and disassembly processes to prevent aberrant protein oligomerization/aggregation and immune activation. These findings have also led us to explore other functional aggregates in different biological contexts, such as transcriptional regulation in the adaptive immune system. Our on going work on one such transcription regulator, AIRE, suggests a novel mechanism in which functional protein aggregation plays an important role in transcriptional remodeling during T cell development. Altogether, our work continues to focus on identifying new molecular principles of functional aggregates in the immune system involving nucleic acid biology: (A) antiviral innate immunity and (B) transcriptional regulation of immune functions. **Current Lab Members:** 1 Graduate Student 6 Postdoctoral Fellows 2 Research Associates **Selected Publications:** Kato K, Ahmad S, Zhu Z, Young JM, Mu X, Park S, Malik HS, **Hur S**. Structural analysis of RIG-I-like receptors reveals ancient rules of engagement between diverse RNA helicases and TRIM ubiquitin ligases. ***Mol Cell.*** 2021 02 04; 81(3):599-613.e8. PMID: 33373584. Huoh YS, **Hur S.** Death domain fold proteins in immune signaling and transcriptional regulation. ***FEBS J.*** 2021 Apr 27. PMID: 33905163. Wang HT, **Hur S**. Substrate recognition by TRIM and TRIM-like proteins in innate immunity. ***Semin Cell Dev Biol.*** 2021 03; 111:76-85. PMID: 33092958. Ahmad S\*, Mu X\*, Yang F\*, Greenwald E, Park JW, Jacob E, Zhang C-Z and **Hur S**., Breaching self-tolerance to Alu duplex RNA underlies MDA5-mediated inflammation. **Cell,** (2018) 172:797-810. Yao H, Dittmann M, Peisley A, Hoffmann H-H, Gilmore RH, Schmidt T, Schmidt-Burgk J, Hornung V, Rice CM and **Hur S**, ATP-dependent effector-like functions of RIG-I like receptors. **Mol. Cell**, (2015), 58:541-8. Peisley A, Wu B, Xu H, Chen ZJ and **Hur S**., Structural basis for ubiquitin-mediated antiviral signal activation by RIG-I. **Nature**, (2014), 509:110-4. PMID: 24590070. Wu B, Peisley A, Richards C, Yao H, Zeng X, Lin C, Chu F, Walz T, **Hur S.** Structural Basis for dsRNA recognition, filament formation and antiviral signaling by MDA5. **Cell** (2013). 152: 276-89. - ## Faculty Alphabetical [Faculty F-J](/people-alphabetical/f-j) - ## People Terms [Faculty](/people-terms/faculty) [Core/ Training Grant Faculty](/people-terms/core-faculty) [Accepting Rotation Students](/people-terms/accepting-rotation-students) [Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology/ Microbiology](/people-terms/biochemistry-molecular-biology) [Genetics/ Genomics, Proteomics & Transcriptomics](/people-terms/genomics) [Imaging](/people-terms/medical-imaging) [Structural Biology](/people-terms/structural-biology) [Theoretical & Computational Biology](/people-terms/computational-biology-bioinformatics)