World-leading cancer and genetics expert, Professor Anne Donaldson from the University of Aberdeen will spend the next eight years working to understand how normal DNA processes can lead to cancer, and ultimately find the most effective way to treat the disease.
Professor Anne Donaldson, Chair in Chromosome Maintenance at the University, received a Wellcome Discovery Award worth £2.4million to complete the ground-breaking research.
The project will look at the DNA replication process. DNA replication happens millions of times over the lifespan from early embryonic development and throughout adulthood as we produce new cells to grow and maintain healthy tissues. However, uncontrolled DNA replication can also make cells multiply out-of-control, causing cancer.
Many cancer drugs work by blocking DNA replication, interfering with the ability of cancer cells to multiply. The team hope that by understanding how DNA replication occurs, they will understand how cancer develops and could ultimately be treated by targeted medicine.
Professor Anne Donaldson and Joe Yeeles
Professor Donaldson explains: “We are investigating the cellular machinery that copies DNA, which usually acts under exquisite control and with near-perfect accuracy.
“We already know that the DNA replication is switched on by a molecular modification called phosphorylation. We found that conversely, DNA replication can be restrained and regulated by dephosphorylation, which removes this modification.
“We will study how cellular components called ‘RIPPOs’ (‘Regulatory Interactors of Protein Phosphatase One’) direct and regulate dephosphorylation, to control DNA replication.
“We can examine this is detail by adding different RIPPOs to DNA replication happening in a test tube. Our approach will provide a new dimension in understanding of how the DNA replication machinery operates and what happens when it goes wrong.
“Ultimately, the hope is that our findings will reveal how DNA replication is controlled normally, and how it gets derailed in cancer cells.”
As part of the project Professor Donaldson will collaborate with Joe Yeeles from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Joe Yeeles was one of the pioneers of the technique that the team will use.