Genome Integrity Discussion Group April 2017

Speakers

Leslie Beh

Columbia University Medical Center

Leslie graduated with a BA in Biology from Harvard University, and currently is a PhD candidate in Laura Landweber's laboratory in Princeton University / Columbia University Medical Center. Leslie applies a combination of genomic and biochemical techniques to understand chromatin structure and function in ciliated protozoa.

Zharko Daniloski

NYU School of Medicine (Smith Lab)

Zharko Daniloski is a PhD candidate in Dr. Susan Smith's Lab at the NYU Langone Medical Center. Before coming to NYU, he obtained his bachelor's degree at the Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. His PhD work focuses on understanding the role of telomere cohesion on telomere maintenance in cancerous and normal human cells. He was recently awarded the Department of Defense Horizon Award for his PhD work.

Hironori Funabiki, PhD

The Rockefeller University

Dr. Hironori Funabiki received BS in 1990, and then PhD in 1995 from Kyoto University, Japan, where he demonstrated that degradation of Securin (Cut2) is required for sister chromatid separation in the lab of Dr. Mitsuhiro Yanagida. He was a postdoc at UCSF from 1996 to 2000, then at Harvard University from 2000 to 2002, in the lab of Dr. Andrew Murray, where he discovered Xkid as a protein responsible for the polar ejection force. In 2002, he became Assistant Professor and Head of Laboratory of Chromosome and Cell Biology at the Rockefeller University. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007, and to Professor in 2014. The Funabiki lab has been investigating the mechanism by which chromosomal factors spatiotemporally control assembly of macromolecular architectures, such as the mitotic spindle, the nuclear envelope, and the kinetochore. More recently, the lab systematically dissects the mitotic functions and regulations of nucleosomes.

Tony Huang, PhD

NYU School of Medicine

Tony Huang, PhD, is Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Mol Pharm at NYU School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree at UC–Berkeley, and PhD at UW–Madison. He did his postdoctoral training with Dr. Alan D'Andrea at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, working on ubiquitin-mediated pathways in DNA repair. Dr. Huang has a long history working on ubiquitin-related signaling pathways. His lab currently focuses on projects involving the Fanconi Anemia genome stability pathway, DNA damage tolerance, and generating ubiquitin tools to study ubiquitin and Ubl dynamics.

Amy MacQueen, PhD

Wesleyan University

Amy MacQueen has held a long-standing interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive chromosome behavior during meiosis. Two prominent and functionally linked features of homolog pairing during meiosis are (1) the assembly of an elaborate, protein-rich structure at the interface of lengthwise-aligned chromosomes (the synaptonemal complex (SC)), and (2) crossover recombination. As an undergraduate in Dr. Tulle Hazelrigg's lab, she investigated the interplay between the cytoskeleton and meiotic chromosomes in Drosophila. Her doctoral research with Dr. Anne Villeneuve investigated chromosome behavior during meiotic prophase in C. elegans; her thesis work included identifying key trans acting factors required for the mysterious process of homologous chromosome pairing, and identified a critical role for localized cis acting domains on C. elegans chromosomes in coordinating pairing establishment with maintenance. During her post-doctoral work in Dr. Shirleen Roeder's lab, she demonstrated the existence of pathways in budding yeast that ensure the "Just In Time" assembly of SC, only after earlier homolog pairing events have occurred successfully. Dr. MacQueen's own lab group at Wesleyan University has focused on the structure and dynamics of the SC, and the roles that SC proteins play in both promoting and constraining crossover recombination events along chromosomes during meiosis in budding yeast.

Jessica Tyler, PhD

Weill Cornell Medical College

Jessica Tyler is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan, New York. She trained as a biochemist with James Kadonaga, identifying and cloning the histone chaperones Chromatin Assembly Factor 1 (CAF-1) from Drosophila and Anti-silencing Function 1 (Asf1). Work of the Tyler lab over the past 16 years has used structural, biophysical, cell biology, molecular and genetic approaches in yeast, flies and tissue culture cells to reveal that chromatin is disassembled and reassembled during not only DNA replication, but also during gene expression and DNA repair. Furthermore, by blocking these chromatin dynamics via depletion of histone chaperones or the inactivation of histone modifications that regulate chromatin assembly and disassembly, they have showed that these chromatin dynamics, which are the ultimate downstream consequence of most other chromatin modifications, play a critical role in regulating gene expression, DNA repair, cell growth and aging. She has received numerous awards recognizing her contributions to science, education and mentorship, including the AACR Charlotte Friend Award.