Congratulations to Beth Bartlett on winning the Department of Biochemistry’s Alkis Seraphim Prize for the best third year undergraduate research project, which she undertook in Professor Steve Jackson’s Group at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute.
It is highly important for our cells to be able to repair their DNA when it is damaged as defects or mutations in DNA can cause cancer. Our cells have several pathways they can use to repair different kinds of DNA damage, with Beth’s project focusing on the Ku80 protein that is involved in repair of DNA double strand breaks. The Jackson Group have previously used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology to screen for genes that potentially interact with Ku80. One of these genes of interest was Ube2m. Beth’s research found that mouse embryonic stem cells lacking Ku80 are more susceptible to DNA damage, and that cells in which both Ku80 and Ube2m are knocked out are less viable and cannot progress through the cell cycle, suggesting an important role for Ube2m alongside Ku80.
