NIH R01 · 2025
Nuclear actin filaments and phase separation: new drivers of heterochromatin repair
SUMMARY DSBs occur in every cell because of exposure to environmental mutagens, such ionizing radiation, chemotherapeutic drugs, UV light, toxic pollutants, and smoking, as well as in response to normal cell metabolism, such as DNA replication. Repairing DSBs is particularly challenging in pericentromeric heterochromatin, a poorly characterized region of the genome where the abundance of repeated sequences can trigger aberrant recombination and widespread genomic instability. And yet, heterochromatin repair mechanisms remain poorly understood. We discovered a specialized pathway that promotes faithful homologous recombination (HR) repair in heterochromatin while preventing aberrant…
From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.