The laboratory employs diverse experimental approaches to elucidate the role of genome instability in cancer. Cell-free extracts derived from the egg of the frog Xenopus laevis are used as a simple model system to study processes that govern genome stability, including DNA replication control, DNA repair, and the cellular response to DNA damage. In addition, cultured mammalian cells and mouse models are exploited to analyze biological responses to DNA damage. We use a range of techniques including proteomics, live-cell imaging, super-resolution microscopy, Hi-C and genome-wide translocation sequencing.

Several specific questions are currently being addressed in this lab.

  • What repair pathways are involved in processing DNA lesions induced by cancer chemotherapeutic drugs? Specifically, we examine double-strand break repair and DNA inter-strand crosslink repair.
  • What conditions favor mis-repair of DNA and lead to chromosome rearrangements?
  • What are the molecular origins of oncogene-induced genomic stress?