FUNCTION OF FFA-1/WRN, XBLM AND REPLICATION FOCI

本实验室的研究是研究真核细胞如何维持其 基因组 正常细胞可以忠实地传递它们的基因 信息. 当细胞失去这种能力时，正如在许多细胞中发现的那样， 人类的遗传病，二次突变会经常出现。 这些突变中的大多数将对细胞有害，并导致早期 衰老 然而，一些突变可能激活癌基因或失活， 肿瘤抑制基因和癌症最终会进化。 的 这里提出的实验被设计为使用青蛙卵提取物作为 研究FFA-1蛋白质结构和功能的模型系统 在染色质上组织复制焦点所必需的。 具体而言，FFA-1将从鸡蛋提取物中耗尽， 将对DNA复制进行评估。这些研究将揭示新的 关于如何保持基因组稳定性的信息，其可以用于 用于设计新的抗癌药物和/或延迟肿瘤生长的药物。 老化过程

The research in this lab is to study how eukaryotic cells maintain their genomes. Normal cells can faithfully transmit their genetic information. When cells lose this ability, as having been found in many human genetic diseases, secondary mutations would frequently arise. Most of these mutations will be deleterious to cells and cause early senescence. However, some mutations may activate oncogenes or inactive tumor suppressor genes and cancer will eventually evolve. The experiments proposed here are designed to use the frog egg extract as a model system to study the structure and function of FFA-1, a protein required for the organization of replication foci on chromatin. Specifically, FFA-1 will be depleted from egg extracts and the effect on DNA replication will be assessed. These studies will reveal novel information on how genomic stability is maintained, which may be used to for the design of new anti-cancer drugs and/or drugs that delay the aging process.