Principal Investigator Leona Samson
Project Website http://samsonlab.mit.edu/animalmodelsofdnarepair.html
Humans are exposed to alkylating agents from the environment, and DNA-alkylation intermediates are constantly formed during normal cellular metabolism. Furthermore, certain alkylating agents are used for cancer chemotherapy and pose danger to healthy tissues. Thus, it is important to understand how cells in vivo are affected by these agents. One fruitful approach is to study mouse models that are deficient in specific DNA repair genes, or that overproduce repair enzymes. The laboratory has developed transgenic and knock-out mice with altered DNA repair capabilities and we are studying their susceptibility to alkylating agent-induced toxicity and carcinogenesis.