Dr Torsten Krude
Position: Lecturer
Personal home page:
http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/krude/index.html
PubMed journal articles - click here
Dr Torsten Krude is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.
For a cell to proliferate in cancer, and during normal development or tissue maintenance, it must replicate its chromosomal DNA. We are investigating the regulation of DNA replication in human cells and cell extracts at the molecular level. Using these approaches, we have characterised the small non-coding Y RNAs as essential factors for the initiation step of human chromosomal DNA replication in vitro. Y RNAs are also required for DNA replication and proliferation of intact cells in culture, and they are significantly over-expressed in solid human tumours. The molecular mechanisms by which Y RNAs regulate the initiation of chromosomal DNA replication are still unknown. Addressing these mechanisms, we have recently identified an essential conserved motif for Y RNA function, as well as molecular interactions between Y RNAs, the pre-replication complex and unreplicated DNA. Our data obtained so far suggest that Y RNAs act as licensing factors for the control of DNA replication.
RNA biochemistry DNA replication in vitro
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Zhang AT, Langley AR, Christov CP, Kheir E, Shafee T, Gardiner TJ, Krude T (2011), Dynamic interaction of Y RNAs with chromatin and initiation proteins during human DNA replication, J Cell Sci 124: 2058-2069 Christov CP, Trivier E, Krude T (2008), Noncoding human Y RNAs are overexpressed in tumours and required for cell proliferation, Br J Cancer 98: 981-988 Christov CP, Gardiner TJ, Szüts D, Krude T (2006), Functional requirement of non-coding Y RNAs for human chromosomal DNA replication, Mol Cell Biol 26: 6993-7004