EPFL BioE Talks SERIES "Regulating DNA Repair in Space and Time"
Event details
| Date | 09.02.2026 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Megan C. King, Yale University, New Haven, CT (USA) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
WEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sandwiches provided)
Abstract:
Maintaining genome stability relies on cellular decision making to employ the optimal DNA repair mechanism. Key inputs to these decision cascades at DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) include the stage of the cell cycle, the chromatin state surrounding a DSB, and the nuclear subcompartment in which the DSB resides. In addition, DSBs that are inefficiently repaired can move between compartments and engage different factors that influence repair outcome. Our team uses fission yeast and mammalian cell culture models to investigate the mechanisms underlying DSB repair outcome and efficiency. Our development of cell biological and genetic assays to study steps of DSB repair have revealed mechanisms that control DSB end resection, a master regulator of DSB repair mechanism choice. DSB resection promotes homology-directed repair (HDR), primarily synthesis-dependent strand annealing in fission yeast that involves multiple strand invasion cycles; the number of cycles dictates repair efficiency. In terms of template choice during HDR, we find that the nuclear periphery enhances the stringency of repair in repetitive regions of the genome. One mechanism involves the LINC complex, which we suggest exerts force on DSBs to enforce stringency of homology testing. Last, we have recently made new insights into the control of a last-ditch DSB repair mechanism, microhomology-mediated end joining, by both the cell cycle and the LINC complex.
Bio and Appointments:
Professor of Cell Biology, Yale School of Medicine
Professor of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology, Yale University
Co-Director, DNA Damage and Genome Integrity Research Program and Associate Director for Basic Science, Yale Cancer Center
Director, Graduate Program in Translational Biomedicine Co-Director, Medical Research Scholars Program
@luskinglab.bsky.social
she/her/hers
Megan King received her B.A. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. During her postdoctoral training with Günter Blobel at Rockefeller University, she discovered new mechanisms for the targeting and function of integral inner nuclear membrane proteins. Since joining the Cell Biology Department at the Yale School of Medicine in 2009, Megan has continued to investigate the broad array of biological functions that are integrated at the nuclear envelope, from genome integrity to nuclear mechanics to mechanotransduction. In 2018 she teamed up with Patrick Lusk and now co-leads the joint LusKing Lab, which focuses on nuclear mechanics, dynamics and quality control. Megan is a past recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and has been named a Searle Scholar, an Allen Distinguished Investigator, and a Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
Abstract:
Maintaining genome stability relies on cellular decision making to employ the optimal DNA repair mechanism. Key inputs to these decision cascades at DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) include the stage of the cell cycle, the chromatin state surrounding a DSB, and the nuclear subcompartment in which the DSB resides. In addition, DSBs that are inefficiently repaired can move between compartments and engage different factors that influence repair outcome. Our team uses fission yeast and mammalian cell culture models to investigate the mechanisms underlying DSB repair outcome and efficiency. Our development of cell biological and genetic assays to study steps of DSB repair have revealed mechanisms that control DSB end resection, a master regulator of DSB repair mechanism choice. DSB resection promotes homology-directed repair (HDR), primarily synthesis-dependent strand annealing in fission yeast that involves multiple strand invasion cycles; the number of cycles dictates repair efficiency. In terms of template choice during HDR, we find that the nuclear periphery enhances the stringency of repair in repetitive regions of the genome. One mechanism involves the LINC complex, which we suggest exerts force on DSBs to enforce stringency of homology testing. Last, we have recently made new insights into the control of a last-ditch DSB repair mechanism, microhomology-mediated end joining, by both the cell cycle and the LINC complex.
Bio and Appointments:
Professor of Cell Biology, Yale School of Medicine
Professor of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology, Yale University
Co-Director, DNA Damage and Genome Integrity Research Program and Associate Director for Basic Science, Yale Cancer Center
Director, Graduate Program in Translational Biomedicine Co-Director, Medical Research Scholars Program
@luskinglab.bsky.social
she/her/hers
Megan King received her B.A. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. During her postdoctoral training with Günter Blobel at Rockefeller University, she discovered new mechanisms for the targeting and function of integral inner nuclear membrane proteins. Since joining the Cell Biology Department at the Yale School of Medicine in 2009, Megan has continued to investigate the broad array of biological functions that are integrated at the nuclear envelope, from genome integrity to nuclear mechanics to mechanotransduction. In 2018 she teamed up with Patrick Lusk and now co-leads the joint LusKing Lab, which focuses on nuclear mechanics, dynamics and quality control. Megan is a past recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and has been named a Searle Scholar, an Allen Distinguished Investigator, and a Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Prof. Sahand Rahi, Institute of Physics & Institute of Bioengineering
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD