Research Interests

My general area of interest since my postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Errol Friedberg's lab at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has been in the area of DNA damage and repair in the eukaryotic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In the lab now we are moving into the general area of the effect of DNA damage on gene expression, specifically on passage of RNA polymerase II past different types of DNA damage.  Laura Grube, Danielle Vlazny and I  initiated these studies by devising a chemiluminescent system to quantitatively measure gene expression after DNA damage.  Katie Ward and Zach Shaheen showed that ethylation damage causes RNA polymerase II to stop or pause in vivo in yeast cells.

 

Previously at CSB/SJU, my undergraduate researchers and I have investigated various aspects of DNA repair.  RJ Hansen and I characterized the spectrum of DNA damage to which RAD27 deletion mutants are vulnerable, and showed that the human version of this protein expressed in yeast can participate in base excision repair in place of the yeast Rad27 protein.  RJ and I were invited to show our work in Washington, D.C. in the Posters on the Hill event (that's him at right), and this work was published in the journal DNA Repair.  Julie Illi investigated the role of the yeast RAD1, RAD2 and RAD27 gene products in repair of ethylation damage.  Megan McInnis, Karin Fossum, Gina O'Neill and I showed that the DNA polymerase encoded by the POL4 gene in yeast does not appear to be involved in base excision repair (also published in DNA Repair).  Zach Faber, Monica Hurtubise and I  investigated the role of the DNA polymerases encoded by the RAD30 and TRF4/5 genes in base excision repair.

 

 
   

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