Molecular mechanisms of how human DNA damage response controls the pathway choice of DNA repair

Life is full of decisions! One of the biggest decisions cells need to make is how to deal with DNA damage. We study DNA-double strand breaks (DSBs), which are the most toxic type of DNA damage in cells. We want to understand how different proteins assemble at the sites of DNA damage, and how this allows cells to decide between different repair pathways. To achieve this goal, we combine cutting-edge techniques such as cryo-EM to visualize their structures and characterize their functions. This study will expand our fundamental understanding of pathway choice in DNA repair at a molecular level in healthy cells, but the long-term applications of this knowledge will be to understand how these decisions go wrong in cancer cells. Ultimately, we want to exploit these differences to develop drugs that can kill cancer cells specifically.

We are looking for an ambitious and enthusiastic student to join our research group. Successful PhD candidate will become an expert in protein purification, complex reconstitution, biochemical/biophysical characterisation and structural determination using cryo-EM.