B.S., Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 1983. My laboratory is interested in cellular responses to DNA damage and the biochemistry of DNA repair. Cells encounter DNA damaging agents continually.
Normal cells are capable of repairing damage to their DNA as a means of preventing mutation.
We wish to learn more about the details of this process. A major goal of the laboratory is to learn how these regulatory and repair proteins work together as part of an integrated cellular response to DNA damage. A second project examines the intracellular activities of Ap4A-family dinucleotide signaling molecules. These putative second messenger molecules are produced in response to certain types of DNA damage and cellular stress, and misregulation of this response may play a role in the development of some types of environmentally-induced cancer. PCNA facilitates excision in long-patch base excision repair.