My laboratory’s long-term research interest is to elucidate cellular mechanisms that govern chromosome inheritance and integrity, with a combination of cell biological, biochemical, and biophysical methods. In particular, our research program aims to understand the execution, interplay, and coordination of DNA replication and repair, sister-chromatid cohesion, and chromosome segregation during the cell cycle. Uneven distribution of sister chromatids in mitosis or failure to repair DNA breaks results in aneuploidy or chromosome translocations, which are two prevalent forms of genomic instability in cancer cells. Our group’s studies will provide a better molecular understanding of chromosome instability in human cancers and may ultimately lead to new strategies to treat them. Recently, our lab has made the surprising discovery that mitotic regulators of chromosome segregation are repurposed to control insulin signaling during interphase, linking genomic stability to metabolism.
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