Andrey Feklistov, PhD

I am a structural biologist and biochemist working on the molecular machines of gene expression: how they read regulatory information and respond to chemical perturbation. My earlier research with Seth Darst at Rockefeller elucidated how bacterial RNA polymerase opens the DNA helix and clarified the mechanism of action of the frontline tuberculosis drug rifampicin. I later led a small-molecule discovery program against PD-L1, a central immune-checkpoint target, at an early-stage biotech.

At Stanford, I study human Mediator with Roger Kornberg, using AI-assisted integrative modeling to explain how it converts transcription-factor signals into RNA polymerase II output.