Ramiro Verdun
University of Miami, FL·Biochemistry
Sunlight damages DNA, and that damage can physically block the machinery that reads genes. When the enzyme that copies DNA into RNA runs into a lesion, the cell faces a choice: stop, call in repair crews, and shut transcription down, or push past the damage and keep making RNA.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Genetics
Pharmacology
- Topics
DNA repair
transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair
RNA Polymerase II
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2031
What they work on
- Determine how bypass of transcription-blocking DNA lesions by RNA Polymerase II, the enzyme that copies genes into RNA, disrupts the cellular response to ultraviolet radiation damage and disturbs normal cell function.
- Define how the acetyltransferase p300 and the ubiquitin-removing enzyme USP7 cooperate to strip stalled RNA Polymerase II from damaged chromatin and shut transcription down after DNA damage.
- Test how cells enforce RNA Polymerase II stalling at blocking lesions to prevent bypass, and whether blocking this control leads to harmful continued transcription and translation of damaged genes.
- Establish how transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair and the DNA-opening complex TFIIH enable lesion bypass in p300-deficient cells, using cells that make full-length messenger RNAs despite UV damage.
More about the research
Which path a cell takes shapes whether it survives, repairs itself accurately, or accumulates mutations. This project works out how that decision is made and what happens when it goes the wrong way.
Why it matters
Many chemotherapies and radiation treatments work by damaging DNA, so how a cell decides between repairing a lesion and transcribing past it can determine whether a tumor dies or healthy tissue is injured. Defining this decision point, and the roles of p300, USP7, and TFIIH in it, could point to drug targets that make DNA-damaging therapy more effective, and to simple tests that help predict side effects across a range of cancers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jung-Hyun Min
Baylor University, TX·Biochemistry
Determine how the yeast damage sensor Rad4-Rad23-Rad33 (equivalent to human XPC-RAD23B-CETN2) and the unwinding machine TFIIH together open DNA around a lesion, using cryo-electron microscopy and crosslinking/mass spectrometry.
Daniel Sloan
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Genetics
Test whether plant MSH1, a repair protein likely acquired from giant viruses, drives a new form of mismatch repair that cuts both DNA strands and then repairs the break by copying a template, keeping plant mitochondrial mutation rates exceptionally low.
Jia Fei
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Biochemistry
Characterize how NDF loosens nucleosomes, the protein spools that package DNA, and helps RNA Polymerase II move through them, using ultra-high-resolution optical tweezers and cryo-electron microscopy.
The school
University of Miami: 30 labs on PI Pages, $559M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
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