The Laverty lab uses a combination of nucleic acid chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology to understand the mechanisms of DNA repair in human cells. The DNA in each of our cells is damaged thousands of times every day, threatening genome stability and organismal health. A suite of dedicated enzymes detects and repairs damaged DNA; however, these pathways can become dysregulated: In some individuals, DNA repair is inefficient, and fails to repair DNA damage, leading to mutations that increase cancer risk. In other cases, cancerous cells can hijack the DNA repair machinery to resist chemotherapy.
We are broadly interested in three questions: 1) How do DNA repair and damage tolerance pathways maintain the stability of our genome in healthy individuals? 2) How are these pathways dysregulated in diseases including neurodegenerative disorders and cancer? and 3) How can we target DNA repair and damage tolerance pathways for novel precision therapies, especially for difficult-to-treat cancers such as glioblastoma?
Answering these questions is complicated by the chemical and structural complexity of DNA damage: most DNA-damaging agents produce a spectrum of different lesions with differing chemical properties and biological consequences. To overcome this complexity, the Laverty lab combines biochemistry and molecular biology to study the repair of site-specific DNA lesions in live cells. This allows us to link individual DNA lesions or DNA repair pathways with specific biological outcomes. We are currently most interested in the repair of DNA double strand breaks—especially “complex” double strand breaks with different chemical modifications—and in gap-filling/translesion synthesis. We are seeking undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows; please email Dr. Laverty if you are interested.