DNA Replication

Brandt Eichman and Walter Chazin, professors of biochemistry, have worked together to provide a better understanding of how exactly DNA replication is initiated in eukaryotes. Using Vanderbilt’s state-of-the-art instrumentation in the Center for Structural Biology’s Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility, Eichman, Chazin and their colleagues provided detailed visualizations of a multi-functional protein in action, which sheds light on how DNA replication is initiated in humans. Read More

Combining deep mutagenesis and cryo-EM reveals new conformational state of a protein responsible for high-speed DNA replication. The research builds on growing theories of molecular evolution. Read More

After discovering a new mechanism for DNA damage repair last year, Vanderbilt biochemists now provide direct evidence for how it works. Read More

James Dewar and colleagues have identified a role for the enzyme topoisomerase II in reducing replication errors during the final stage of DNA synthesis. Read More

Vanderbilt scientists have identified 593 proteins that are enriched at sites of DNA duplication and chromatin packaging of newly synthesized DNA. Read More

New findings shed light on how enzymes that replicate DNA skip over mutations that might cause cancer and restart DNA synthesis further away. Read More

DNA replication is an extraordinarily complex multi-step process that makes copies of the body’s genetic blueprint. It is necessary for growth and essential to life. Now researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Vanderbilt University have found evidence that one of those steps may involve the telephone-like transmission of electrical signals regulated by a chemical “switch.” Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have determined that a previously uncharacterized protein responds to DNA replication stress and has an essential role in maintaining the integrity of the genome. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered details about the mechanism of an important DNA repair protein that maintains genome stability. Read More

Telomeres – the caps on the end of chromosomes – are a source of stress for a particular protein involved in copying DNA, a new study reports. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have generated a “parts list” for the molecular machinery that duplicates DNA each time a cell divides. The research has implications for cancer therapies that target components of this machinery. Read More

Vanderbilt and Stanford investigators have discovered how a protein that's part of the DNA replication "machinery" helps cells tolerate DNA damage. Read More

Insights into the workings of DNA damage response proteins such as SMARCAL1 could suggest new ways to improve genome integrity and prevent cancer. Read More

Studies of a human polymerase that replicates DNA have provided a complete kinetic and structural framework for understanding how the enzyme accurately bypasses DNA damage. Read More

David Cortez, Ph.D., and his Vanderbilt colleagues report new findings that shed light on fundamental processes involved in DNA replication and have implications for cancer therapies that target these processes. Read More

Structural studies reveal a new framework for understanding a central player in DNA processing. Read More

A new tool will allow researchers to identify proteins involved in DNA replication and damage repair, processes that go awry in cancer. Read More

I’ve always been fascinated, and occasionally frustrated, by the tendency of string, yarn, rope and wire – any thing that is long, thin and flexible – to knot and tangle. Fields Medal winner Vaughan F.R. Jones Clearly, I’m not the only one. Mathematicians have been studying knots… Read More