Understanding cell cycle regulation and DNA replication with high content imaging and nanopore sequencing

Title: Understanding cell cycle regulation and DNA replication with high content imaging and nanopore sequencing

Speaker: Dr Mathew Jones, SCMB/Frazer Institute

Abstract: Many chemotherapies used in cancer treatment act by targeting the DNA replication machinery. This approach can successfully eradicate cancer cells, but its efficacy is limited by toxic side effects in highly proliferative healthy tissues. My team is focused on studying the protein kinase that coordinate the DNA replication machinery and understanding how they are dysregulated in cancer. We use a range of techniques to address the function of protein kinases including chemical genetics “Shokat alleles”,  kinase specific biosensors and high content imaging. My group has also developed long-read nanopore sequencing tools to assess how chemotherapy treatments impact individual replication forks to better understand their mechanism of action. These fundamental insights into the coordination of DNA replication and DNA repair have the potential to improve how chemotherapies are administered in the clinic to treat a variety of cancers.

Bio: Dr Mathew Jones has a long-standing interest in the kinase-dependent regulation of DNA replication. He completed his PhD in the Signal Transduction laboratory at QIMR Berghofer before moving to the USA for postdoctoral training with Prof Tony Huang at New York University and Prof Prasad Jallepalli at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience and a group leader at the Frazer Institute.