Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2008

Mentor: James Amatruda, MD, PhD
Department: Pediatrics
Room number: NB8.218
Mail Code: 8593
Phone number: 8-1645
E-mail: james.amatruda@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Zebrafish Models of Cancer

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): APN 2007-0228

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)
Animal-based

Brief Description of Project:
The DNA-damage checkpoint is a key cellular mechanisms to protect against the mutagenic effects of DNA-dmaging agents. Defects in DNA-damage repari underlie many cancers, yet the full spectrum ofgenes involved in thi process are unknown. We have discovered two novel zebrafish mutants that fails to execute the DNA-damage checkpoint correctly. This project wil further characterize and pinpoint the defect in these mutants, and collect data to allow positional cloning of the mutated genes.