University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researcher Justin Leung has received a five-year, $1.47 million National Cancer Institute grant to study DNA.
Leung’s project is a collaboration with Robert Eoff, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the UAMS College of Medicine. The two are researchers in the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
“Our work will potentially provide a fundamental understanding of the molecular mechanism of DNA damage regulation in our body and also reveal potential targets for cancer therapeutic development,” said Leung, an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology.
Work on the NCI grant, “Mechanistic Characterization of Cell Cycle-Dependent DNA Repair,” focuses on dissecting the molecular mechanism on cell cycle-regulated DNA repair, specifically during early DNA replication. Leung and Eoff hope to identify a key group of proteins known as a histone-mark reader that work together to protect our genetic material from DNA damage.
Leung previously received a four-year, $792,000 American Cancer Society Research Scholar grant to study DNA repair mechanisms. In September, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded him a $1.9 million grant in support of the researcher’s roadmap project, “Deciphering the Chromatin-based DNA Damage Response Pathway.”
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