Congratulations to Dr. Kinrin Yamanaka and Stacey Lin on recent accomplishments and commendations!
- Dr. Yamanaka was awarded the 2012 Resko Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award to be presented at the OHSU School of Medicine Hooding Ceremony on Monday, June 4. Dr. Yamanaka’s dissertation is titled ” Molecular targeting of translesion synthesis DNA polymerases for novel combination chemotherapy.” She works in the laboratories of Dr. Lloyd and Dr. McCullough.
- Stacey Lin from the Cancer Biology Program won the “Best Poster Award” at OHSU Research Week on “Mutagenesis of Aflatoxin B1-DNA adducts in mammalian cells.” Stacy is also a member of the labs of Dr. Lloyd and Dr. McCullough at CROET.
The labs of Dr. Lloyd and Dr. McCullough combine the research interests of Dr. Amanda McCullough and Dr. R. Stephen Lloyd in the field of DNA damage, replication and repair. Their interests cover a wide variety of topics that range from the biochemical basis of DNA repair to the effects of oxidative stress on metabolism.
More from Stacey: “I am a second year graduate student in the cancer biology program. Exposure to aflatoxin leads to hepatocellular carcinoma in humans. My current project is to study the carcinogenesis of AFB1 and its role in mutagenesis. AFB1 is a naturally occurring potent carcinogen generated by the Aspergillus fungi that can contaminate agricultural crops like corn and peanuts during growth, harvest and storage. This toxin can modify deoxyguanosine in the DNA upon metabolic activation. I found that the two main types of DNA-adducts, the AFB1-N7-G and AFB1-FAPY, are highly mutagenic in mammalian cells with a mutation frequency of 45% and 97%, respectively. Translesion synthesis polymerase kappa may be partially responsible for AFB1-DNA adducts bypass based on in vitro data. Further exploration of the molecular mechanism is under investigation. Overall, these findings suggest that AFB1 mutagenicity contributes to its carcinogenesis.
The poster title is mutagenesis of aflatoxin b1- DNA adducts in mammalian cell.”
Submitted by Stacey Lin.
Read more about OHSU Research Week on OHSU StudentSpeak.
