Karlene Cimprich

Our laboratory studies how cells maintain genome stability, particularly during DNA replication, where many challenges threaten its accurate completion and can lead to DNA damage. 

We use diverse approaches in mammalian cells and Xenopus egg extracts to investigate how cells sense DNA damage during replication, choose between possible responses to stalled replication forks, and coordinate transcription with DNA replication. As genome instability is a hallmark of cancer and aging, these mechanistic discoveries may point the way to new diagnostic or therapeutic approaches for cancer and other diseases.