BIOCHEMISTRY

Elucidating the role of Escherichia coli RarA protein at the interface of DNA replication and repair

DNA replication is central to the growth of all living things. The majority of the time, cells are able to pull it off without a hitch. But what about when there are errors? DNA is constantly under attack from different chemicals and even the sun. Tyler Stanage of the Cox Lab spent his Ph.D. trying to find out how E. coli cells react to this damage and why. Through his work he’s found there’s a protein responsible for directing traffic between multiple pathways that deal with DNA damage. To learn more, attend his Thesis Review at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 12 in the HFD Biochemical Sciences Building Room 1211.

After IPiB, Tyler will be traveling to London for a postdoc at the Francis Crick Institute, where he’ll start to move his research to humans and mice because this protein has close homologues with very similar functions there, and the work has implications for cancer and other diseases.