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| Graduate student Marlo Thompson studies DNA repair proteins in the lab at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute. |
The $875 award is intended to provide funding for graduate students and new investigators to attend the society’s International Conference on Environmental Mutagens, planned for Aug. 27 to Sept. 1 in Ottawa, Canada. The weeklong conference will focus on toxicology, genotoxicity, epigenetics, DNA repair and public health with a goal of fostering career development and establishing collaborative relationships within EMGS.
“Attending the conference would allow me to gain feedback on my work from experts in the field from around the world and hear the latest research in DNA damage and repair,” Thompson said.
She conducts research at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute in the lab of Aishwarya Prakash, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the USA College of Medicine. A student investigator co-chair of the Women in EMGS Special Interest Group, Thompson presented a virtual poster at the organization’s annual meeting in 2021.
Her research revolves around the DNA glycosylace NEIL1, one of 11 enzymes that catalyze the first step of the base excision repair pathway. Thompson is characterizing a novel nanobody against NEIL1, which provides a new way to study the enzyme. A deficiency in NEIL1 has been associated with pulmonary adenomas, hepatocellular carcinomas and colorectal cancers. NEIL1 polymorphisms also have been shown to be adequate markers to predict radiation injury and radiation lung inflammation, a common side effect of treating lung cancers.
“Our hope is to advance our comprehension of NEIL1’s structure and activity so that we may one day understand the role NEIL1 plays in disease states,” she said.
