Grant Holder
Dr Stephen West

Researcher
Dr Madalena Tarsounas

Completed project
London - London & South East England

Institute
Clare Hall Laboratories (Cancer Research UK), South Mimms

Amount Awarded
£100,804.00

Duration
24 months

Type of Award
Project grant

Title

Cellular and biochemical functions of BRCA2

Synopsis

Dr West and Dr Tarsounas project will provide new insights into the mechanism by which breast cells are committed to become cancerous cells when the breast cancer gene BRCA2 isn’t functioning correctly. An understanding of the problems associated with BRCA2 defects may provide an important key to the development of new breast cancer drugs.

Aims & Goals

"This laboratory carries out basic research into mechanisms that maintain genome stability. It is known that individuals with mutations in BRCA2 have defects in recombinational repair, so we are trying to get to the bottom of the cause".

Updates

Dr Stephen West and Dr Madalena Tarsounas at Clare Hall Laboratories, South Mimms have discovered that a protein called RAD51 is responsible for preventing cells from dying. The bodies’ cell cycle means that cells are constantly dying and being replaced with new ones and disruption to this normal process could lead to cancer. They will now investigate if the well known hereditary breast cancer gene BRCA2 also plays a role in stopping cells from dying.

Publications

Title Telomere maintenance requires the RAD51D recombination/repair protein
Year 2004
Authors M.Tarsounas, P. Munoz, A. Claas, P.G. Smiraldo, D. Pittman, M. Blasco and S.C. West.
Title Human DNA Polymerase n Promotes DNA sSynthesis from Strand Invasion Intermediates of Homologous Recombination
Year 2005
Authors McIiwraith, M., Vaisman, A., Liu, Y., Fanning, E., Woodgate, R. & West, S.
Title CDK-dependent phosphorylation of BRCA2 as a regulatory mechanism for recombinational repair
Year 2005
Authors Esashi, F., Christ, N., Gannon, J., Liu, Y., Hunt, T., Jasin, M., and West, S. C.
Title BRCA2 BRC motifs bind RAD51-DNA filaments
Year 2005
Authors Galkin, V. E., Esashi, F., Yu, X., Yang, S. X., West, S. C., and Egelman, E. H.

Presentations

Title Genome instability in human cells
Year 2004
Authors SC West, M. Tarsounas, Y. Liu and F. Esashi.
Title Double strand break repair by homologous recombination. Mechanisms and control
Year 2004
Authors SC West, M Tarsounas, Y Liu, F Esashi
Title Making ends meet: Double strand break repair in human cells
Year 2004
Authors SC West, M Tarsounas and Y Liu.
Title Identification of essential components of the human Holliday junction resolvasome
Year 2004
Authors Y Liu, M Tarsounas, SC West.
Title Double strand break repair by homologous recombination. Mechanisms and control
Year 2004
Authors SC West, M Tarsounas, Y Liu, F Esashi.
Title Efficient homologous recombination and the maintenance of genome stability
Year 2004
Authors SC West, M Tarsounas and Y Liu
Title Role of RAD51 paralogs in Holliday junction resolution and telomere protection
Year 2005
Authors SC West, M Tarsounas
Title Role of RAD51 paralogs in Holliday junction resolution and telomere protection
Year 2005
Authors Dr Steven West and Maria Tarsounas
Title Making ends meet: double strand break repair in human cells’
Year 2006
Authors Stephen West
Title Making ends meet: double strand break repair in human cells’
Year 2006
Authors

Back to grants