Andrew J. Pierce, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Selected publications

Research statement: The maintenance of genomic stability is of fundamental importance to cellular life.  Although there are many ways in which this stability is challenged, DNA double-strand-breaks are particularly dire, as they threaten both the local information content at the site of the break as well as global chromosome structure.  Fortunately, human cells have devised several mechanisms by which these lesions can be repaired, with varying consequences depending upon exactly which repair pathway is chosen.  Using the tools of modern cellular biology and the techniques of molecular genetics, our research goal is to answer several fundamental questions such as:  1) How is the choice of repair pathway determined?  2) What are the components that underlie the machinery of the various repair mechanisms and what are the biochemical functions of these components?  3) Under which circumstances and by which methods can the choice of repair pathway and the outcome of repair be manipulated?  Answers to these questions will have broad importance ranging from furthering knowledge of the basic science of cellular DNA metabolism, to clinical concerns such as maximizing the effectiveness of cancer treatment, and enabling practical gene therapies for human diseases at the molecular level.

More details can be found at the lab's web homepage (this is a non-University web site):

http://www.paralog.com/ajp