Wood Laboratory
Areas of Research
- DNA Repair Research
- DNA Polymerases Research
- Genome Stability Research
- Genetic Predisposition to Cancers Research
Wood Lab Group Photo, Summer 2019
Welcome to the Wood Laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center. We are a research lab in the Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis at Science Park, a basic science research campus of MD Anderson located near Austin, Texas. Research in our group explores the mechanisms of genome stability and the consequences for cancer, including the biochemical mechanism of repair of cross-links between DNA strands and the DNA polymerases that help cells tolerate DNA damage.
It is important to understand the mechanisms of DNA repair in detail, because this process is a front-line defense against the mutations that cause cancer. Mammalian cells have numerous strategies for repair of DNA damage and devote many hundreds of genes and proteins to DNA repair. Moreover, the aim of many cancer therapies is to disable tumor DNA by using DNA-damaging radiation and drugs. Our research employs a broad range of investigations, ranging from fundamental biochemical studies and proteomics through cellular biology, to genetically engineered mouse models having impaired pathways of repair and mutagenesis.
Postdoctoral Position Available
We have a funded postdoctoral position open to carry out research on the biochemistry of DNA repair and DNA polymerases. Please contact us by sending your CV and references.
Recent Events
New Publications
Martin SK, Wood RD. DNA polymerase ζ in DNA replication and repair. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Sep 19;47(16):8348-8361. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz705. PMID: 31410467
Liu X, Jiang Y, Takata KI, Nowak B, Liu C, Wood RD, Hittelman WN, Plunkett W. CNDAC-induced DNA double strand breaks cause aberrant mitosis prior to cell death. Mol Cancer Ther. 2019 Sep 9. pii: molcanther.1380.2018. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-18-1380. (In press) PMID: 31501277
Feng W, Simpson DA, Carvajal-Garcia J, Price BA, Kumar RJ, Mose LE, Wood RD, Rashid N, Purvis JE, Parker JS, Ramsden DA, Gupta GP. Genetic determinants of cellular addiction to DNA polymerase theta. Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 19;10(1):4286. PMID: 31537809
Events
Welcome to postdoctoral fellow Yuzhen Li, Ph.D., who recently received her PhD degree from Tsinghua University in China.
The Wood lab continues to collaborate with former lab colleagues Kei-ichi Takata, who now leads a laboratory at the Institute for Basic Science, Center for Genomic Integrity, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in Ulsan, S. Korea, and Junya Tomida, Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Rick Wood, Ph.D., was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018. Congratulations, Rick!
We are pleased to have research support from NIH, DoD and CPRIT.
In the image below, a double-fluorescent Cre reporter system was used to monitor Cre recombinase activity in skin. In this system, the transgene mT/mG expresses red fluorescence in cell membranes before Cre-mediated recombination and green fluorescence after Cre-mediated recombination. We can use this system in conditional knock-out strains to monitor cell-specific expression of Cre activity and infer where our gene of interest is no longer expressed.
