Raphael Pavani

Happy to share our latest research on the BRCA1-BRCTs now online.

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Congrats to first author Venda for putting it all together! This project was a great collaboration with the @titiasixma.bsky.social lab who helped us give structural meaning to our observations.

Congrats Justin and Peter! Justin’s work is great!

The molecular basis of human transcription-coupled DNA repair - Nature Cell Biology This Review discusses transcription-coupled DNA repair in response to the stalling of RNA polymerase II on different types of DNA lesions and highlights the molecular details for the different steps i...

Dive into the step-by-step choreography of transcription-coupled DNA repair.

In our new review published in Nature Cell Biology, we explore what we know and what’s next in this exciting field of research!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Targeting DNA damage in ageing: towards supercharging DNA repair - Nature Reviews Drug Discovery DNA damage to the somatic genome has been identified as a major cause of ageing. This Perspective provides an overview of current understanding of the role of genome instability in the ageing process ...

Targeting DNA damage in ageing: towards supercharging DNA repair www.nature.com/articles/s41...
rdcu.be/eqQ7R

This new Perspective discusses approaches to pharmacologically mitigate the adverse effects of DNA damage to prevent mutation-driven cancers and mitigate age-related degenerative diseases

New twist on BRCA1-mediated DNA recombination repair and tumor suppression Ever since BRCA1 germline mutations were found to confer a strong predisposition to the development of breast and ovarian cancers, there has been great interest in determining how this protein suppresses tumor formation. Through more than two decades of research, it has become clear that BRCA1 safeguards our genome mainly by promoting DNA repair through homologous recombination (HR). This opinion article outlines our evolving view of BRCA1’s role in end resection, an upstream commitment step for HR, and highlights recent discoveries suggesting that the context in which DNA breaks are generated dictates whether BRCA1 is required for end resection. In addition, strong emerging evidence for the tumor-suppressive function of BRCA1 being mediated predominantly by its indispensable role in supporting RAD51-dependent recombination downstream of end resection is discussed.

New twist on BRCA1-mediated DNA recombination repair and tumor suppression

New twist on BRCA1-mediated DNA recombination repair and tumor suppression Ever since BRCA1 germline mutations were found to confer a strong predisposition to the development of breast and ovarian cancers, there has been great interest in determining how this protein suppres...

Checkout our lab's new publication where we discuss the latest advances in BRCA1 biology at double-strand breaks, including our recent work on how BRCA1 promotes recombination at replication-associated DNA breaks. Kudos to Dali who led this piece!

www.cell.com/trends/cell-...

Excited to share our new paper on Nature - how Ku accommodates Alu expansion in primates by binding to dsRNA, providing a clue for both the high levels of Ku and its essentiality in human cells. Thank @chaolinzhang @hchung03 @LenaSteckelberg More to come www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats @archaeon-alex.bsky.social, amazing paper!

Check out our review on DNA end resection! With Raphael Ceccaldi, www.nature.com/articles/s41...

G-quadruplex–stalled eukaryotic replisome structure reveals helical inchworm DNA translocation DNA G-quadruplexes (G4s) are non–B-form DNA secondary structures that threaten genome stability by impeding DNA replication. To elucidate how G4s induce replication fork arrest, we characterized fork ...

How do replisomes walk on DNA? And what happens when they run into a G-quadruplex? @sahilbatra.bsky.social and @benallwein.bsky.social provide unexpected insight in our latest paper with Richard Hite @mskcancercenter.bsky.social @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... Congrats to all authors!

SAVE THE DATE! The next EMBO | EMBL Symposium on 'DNA replication and genome maintenance: from basic biology to disease' will be held October 20-23, 2026.
 
Organized by Helle Ulrich (IMB), Johannes Walter (Harvard) and Anja Groth (Danish Cancer Institute).

www.embl.org/about/info/c...

Review from our lab out today: "Roles for the 3D Genome In the cell cycle, DNA replication, and double strand break repair." Written by @scientistkate.bsky.social, with her co-supervisor @piptaberlay.bsky.social and collaborator Mat Jones. www.frontiersin.org/journals/cel...

BRCA1 turned 30 🎉
To celebrate, Jos Jonkers and I explored three decades of BRCA1 research - what we’ve learned about its biology, its role in tumorigenesis and future directions to improve the life of BRCA1 mutation carriers.
Now out in Cancer Discovery ⬇️: aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...

Amazing work by Susan’s lab showing that transcription termination/pausing can be a source of endogenous DNA damage and genome instability

C-terminal amides mark proteins for degradation via SCF–FBXO31 - Nature SCF–FBXO31 scans proteins for C-terminal amidation and marks them for subsequent proteasomal degradation.

Cells are filled with toxic stuff that damages healthy proteins. Is that garbage just left to rot on the curb? No way! Ubiquitin ligases have evolved to recognize chemical damage and clean it up! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We developed a proteomic kinase activity sensor platform (ProKAS) for the analysis of kinase signaling using mass spectrometry. ProKAS is based on a tandem array of peptide sensors with amino acid barcodes that allow multiplexed analysis for spatial, kinetic, and screening applications.

Excited to share our preprint reporting a completely new approach to study kinase signaling: ProKAS.

ProKAS is based on a tandem array of peptide sensors with barcodes for multiplexed, spatial and kinetic applications.

We applied it to DDR kinases. Please share.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ron Milligan, a retired @scripps.edu prof and a pioneer in using cryoEM to advance cell biology, now crafts ceramics—and he’s really good at it! Visited him today and picked up two stunning pieces for my office. One of them will be full of candy, so swing by! 🍬
www.ronmilliganceramics.com/philosophy

Stabilization of expandable DNA repeats by the replication factor Mcm10 promotes cell viability Nature Communications - DNA repeats can lengthen or shorten during their replication, which may lead to a human disease. Here, the authors discovered that an essential replication protein, Mcm10,...

Mcm10 — an important replication and elongation factor, counteracts repeat instability and ensures survival of yeast cells containing large homopurine homopyrimidine repeats, such as GAA associated with Friedreich’s Ataxia and AAGGG associated with CANVAS. 🧬 @natureportfolio.bsky.social

DNA Break Repair by Homologous Recombination (2024) Drew Berry wehi.tv YouTube video by WEHImovies

Delighted to publish my new molecular animation:

DNA Break Repair by Homologous Recombination

youtu.be/Xe-83tBcxhs

Such a great game!