BMC Seminar Thursday, May 3 at 12:00 in room 343 Læknagarður

Speaker: Stefán Hermanowicz, PhD student in Stefán Þ Sigurðsson lab at the Faculty of Medicine , University of Iceland

Title: The Regulation of DNA Repair by Epigenetics and Epitranscriptomics

Abstract: DNA repair is crucial to maintaining the health and integrity of cells. Damage that is allowed to persist within the DNA may aid in the formation of diseases such as cancer. It is therefore crucial that proteins involved in DNA repair are functional. ALKBH3 is a protein involved in the repair and removal of alkylation damage and improperly located methyl groups on DNA and RNA. Recently we published that ALKBH3 is being epigenetically silenced in a portion of breast tumors in Iceland. In order to explore any functional consequence of this silencing we performed experiments through which we uncovered a previously unknown role in the regulation of a key DNA repair protein crucial for effective DNA double-strand break repair. Currently we are looking into how ALKBH3 is regulating this protein. Our data suggests that ALKBH3 is regulating biochemical marks on the mRNA of this DNA double-strand break repair protein. This type of regulation of a DNA repair protein could be a novel addition to the field of DNA repair and could provide valuable insight into personalized treatment for cancer patients.