Michelle Spiering

Professional Appointments and Affiliations

Associate Research Professor

Office 

404 Wartik Laboratory
University Park, PA 16802

Mailing Address

104 Benkovic Building
367 Science Dr
University Park, PA 16802

Honors and Awards

NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA), 2004

Susan Lipschutz Award, University of Michigan, 2000

Jane Tichy Memorial Award, Carroll University, 1995 

Education

B.S., Carroll University; 1995

Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2002

Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn State University, 2003-09

Research Group and Interests

In the Benkovic Lab, my research centers on unraveling the molecular mechanisms behind DNA replication and repair. I investigate the structural and functional properties of biological molecules, with a specific focus on DNA replication processes in bacteriophage T4. Collaborating with the Li Lab at the Van Andel Institute, I have helped to uncover the assembly pathway of the T4 primosome, offering critical structural insights into its role in DNA replication. My work has also illuminated how RNA primer-primase complexes serve as signals for polymerase recycling and initiate the synthesis of Okazaki fragments, enhancing our understanding of lagging-strand replication. Additionally, through collaborations with the Croquette Lab utilizing magnetic tweezers, I have explored the cooperative dynamics between polymerase and helicase during leading-strand synthesis and identified multiple mechanisms of primer synthesis by primase. These findings contribute valuable knowledge to molecular biology and hold potential applications in biotechnology and medicine.

Selected Publications

*Feng, X., *Spiering, M. M., de Luna Almeida Santos, R., Benkovic, S. J., and Li, H. (2023) Structural basis of the T4 bacteriophage primosome assembly and primer synthesis. Nat. Commun. 14:4396.
*Authors contributed equally

Ding, F., Cocco, S., Raj, S., Manosas, M., Nguyen, T., Spiering, M. M., Bensimon, D., Allemand, J.-F., and Croquette, V. (2022) Displacement and dissociation of oligonucleotides during DNA hairpin closure under strain. Nucleic Acids Res. 50:12082-12093.

Zhao, X., Palacci, H., Yadav, V., Spiering, M. M., Gilson, M., Butler, P., Hess, H., Benkovic, S. J., and Sen, A. (2018). Substrate-driven Chemotactic Assembly in Enzyme Cascade. Nat. Chem. 10:311-317.

Spiering, M. M., Hanoian, P., Gannavaram, S., and Benkovic, S. J. (2017) RNA primer-primase complexes serve as the signal for polymerase recycling and Okazaki fragment initiation in T4 phage DNA replication. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 114:5635-5640.

Benkovic, S. J., and Spiering, M. M. (2017). Understanding DNA replication by the bacteriophage T4 replisome. J. Biol. Chem. 292: 18434-18442.  Review

Manosas, M., Spiering, M. M., Ding, F., Croquette, V., and Benkovic, S. J. (2012) Collaborative coupling between polymerase and helicase for leading-strand DNA synthesis. Nucleic Acids Res. 40:6187-6198.

Manosas, M., Spiering, M. M., Ding, F., Bensimon, D., Allemand, J.-F., Benkovic, S. J., and Croquette V. (2012) Mechanism of strand displacement synthesis by DNA replicative polymerases. Nucleic Acids Res. 40:6174-6186.

*Manosas, M., *Spiering, M. M., Zhuang, Z., Benkovic, S. J., and Croquette, V. (2009) Coupling DNA unwinding activity with primer synthesis in the bacteriophage T4 primosome. Nat. Chem. Biol. 12:904-912.
*Authors contributed equally

Lionnet, T., Spiering, M. M., Benkovic, S. J., Bensimon, D., and Croquette, V. (2007) Real-time observation of bacteriophage T4 gp41 helicase reveals an unwinding mechanism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:19790-19795.