Dipali Sashital

Dipali Sashital is a Professor at Iowa State University, affiliated with the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Her research focuses on RNA-protein (RNP) complexes, particularly in bacterial and archaeal CRISPR-Cas systems. She employs biochemical, structural, and cellular tools to elucidate mechanisms of CRISPR immunity, including RNA-guided DNA targeting and defense against phages and plasmids. Her lab investigates how CRISPR-Cas systems adapt to foreign genetic elements and execute precise DNA cleavage while minimizing off-target effects.

Dr. Sashital holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Michigan (2001), a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2006), and completed postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley (2008–2011) and The Scripps Research Institute (2012–2013). Her expertise spans structural biology, enzymology, and CRISPR-Cas functional studies.

Her research emphasizes CRISPR-Cas12a, Cas9, and other Class 2 systems, with a focus on metal-dependent enzymatic activities, prespacer processing, and CRISPR array programming. Recent work includes developing the CasPEDIA database for classifying CRISPR-Cas enzymes and investigating off-target effects in genome editing. Her lab also explores CRISPR-based pathogen detection and biotechnological applications.

Key themes in her publications include CRISPR specificity, DNA cleavage mechanisms, and the interplay between effector proteins and guide RNAs. She collaborates on tools for improving CRISPR-Cas precision and has contributed to understanding CRISPR’s role in bacterial immune systems.