Research in my lab focuses on the repair of damaged DNA, specifically damage
encountered during active replication or S-phase. DNA is a dynamic biopolymer that
contains the genetic information for life. The accurate copying of this information is
critical to survival yet the DNA is constantly damaged from the byproducts of metabolism
within a cell as well as from exposure to toxins in the environment. The state of
persistent DNA damage leads to undesired genetic changes, perhaps even cancer. Therefore,
cells have devised numerous pathways for the repair of DNA damage. Research in my lab
explores the interaction between two known DNA damage repair proteins, Bloom syndrome
protein (Blm) and Rad51. Undergraduate research in my lab is critical for success.
Individual projects include: *The subcloning of cDNA for the full-length Blm protein as
well as specific deletion mutants that will assist in determining the exact residues that
contact Rad51 *The over expression and purification of Blm proteins to be used for in
vitro biochemical assays *Determining Protein-Protein binding interactions again to be
used to assess the affect of deletion mutants This work is supported by the RI-INBRE
grant for the NIH.

Biology

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A unified view of base excision repair: lesion-dependent protein (with Robert W. Sobol), Faculty Publications (2007)

Base excision repair (BER) proteins act upon a significantly broad spectrum of DNA lesions that...