The work has implications for the way that cancer cells respond to radiation and chemotherapy. In addition to directing my own laboratory, I head a Gene Regulation group within MCG's Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics that includes seven other faculty members. Each investigator has an independent program, most of which are in the general area of how cells respond to DNA damage and other forms of stress, including viral infection. I would like to bring researchers together to create a broad-based cancer initiative within the State of Georgia. Our goal should be to develop joint cancer-related research, educational, and outreach activities on a regional basis.
Treatment of cancer is poised to undergo radical change in the next decade.
I would like to better enable our research community to take advantage of the scientific opportunities in this field, and I would like to assure that our citizens have access to the latest developments in cancer treatment. What's hot in the lab Human cells have a remarkably efficient mechanism for repairing double-strand DNA breaks induced by radiation and other causes. We are excited about the prospect of understanding how this machine works at a molecular and biochemical level. Within the last several months, the students and postdoctoral fellows in the lab have expressed and purified many of the proteins that make up this machine, and we are carrying out chemical crosslinking studies to understand how the pieces fit together. We'd like to extend these studies to identify any pieces of the repair machinery that we are missing, to understand the structure of the repair machine at higher resolution, and to learn how to turn off the repair machinery in cancer cells as an aid to radiation therapy.