GL Moldovan Laboratory

Happy to share our new work on the nuclease EXO1, published in Nature Communications. We show that EXO1 is overexpressed in cancers. This promotes nascent DNA degradation, even in BRCA-proficient cells, resulting in genomic instability and chemotherapy sensitization. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thrilled to announce that Alexandra Nusawardhana, graduate student in the lab, was awarded an F31 National Research Service Award fellowship by the NCI to investigate the role of EXO1 in genomic stability. Congratulations Lexi!

So happy and proud to hood Drs. Lindsey Pale, Jude Khatib and Josh Straka at the 2025 Penn State College of Medicine Commencement ceremony. Congratulations and all the best in your careers!

I meant "translesion synthesis" but autocorrect was quicker than me.

Translesion-synthesis-mediated bypass of DNA lesions occurs predominantly behind replication forks restarted by PrimPol The bypass of DNA lesions by translesion synthesis (TLS) polymerases is a critical step for DNA damage tolerance, allowing the completion of DNA synth…

Happy to share our new collaboration paper in Cell Reports. We show that translation synthesis in cancer cells occurs predominantly behind the replication fork, to fill ssDNA gaps, rather than to restart stalled replication forks “on the fly”. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our year in pictures. Happy holidays everyone!

Congratulations Dr. Straka! Josh successfully defended his PhD thesis today. Wishing him all the best in his future career!

Today we said goodbye to Jude and Josh, two outstanding graduate students who joined us in the middle of the pandemic and are now moving on to bigger and better things. Congratulations on your degrees and all the best in the future!

CAF-1 promotes efficient PrimPol recruitment to nascent DNA for single-stranded DNA gap formation Abstract. Suppression of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) gap accumulation at replication forks has emerged as a potential determinant of chemosensitivity in ho

2) The histone chaperone CAF1 promotes PRIMPOL recruitment to restart stalled forks through ssDNA gap formation. doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

CRISPR knockout genome-wide screens identify the HELQ-RAD52 axis in regulating the repair of cisplatin-induced single-stranded DNA gaps Abstract. Treatment with genotoxic agents, such as platinum compounds, is still the mainstay therapeutical approach for the majority of cancers. Our unders

Sharing our two recent papers on PRIMPOL in ssDNA gap metabolism published in NAR: 1) HELQ and RAD52 regulate ssDNA gap repair doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Our lab is now on Bluesky! To start off on a happy note, we are happy to share that two senior grad students in the lab, Ana and Lexi, received Alumni Society Awards today!