Transcriptional regulation by DNA repair proteins

Description of projects available to graduate students:
Background: DNA repair pathways maintain the integrity of the genome, reducing the onset of cancer, disease and aging phenotypes. We can expect all cancer cells to be defective in some aspect of DNA repair, resulting from defects in over 150 different human DNA repair proteins. To survive the loss of a single DNA repair gene, cancer cells must reprogram the transcriptome to provide a growth advantage. Understanding the gene expression changes that are induced following the loss of a single DNA repair gene may offer new targets for tumor selective therapy.


Project Description: This project will utilize a newly developed library of isogenic DNA repair deficient human cells to evaluate the transcriptional reprogramming that is induced following loss of a specific DNA repair gene (e.g., BRCA1).

Techniques graduate student will learn:
Transcriptional profiling, systems analysis of transcriptional profiles, validation by targeted lentiviral transduction and qRT-PCR.