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Professor Duncker's lab is using budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae for cancer-related studies of the cell cycle. Currently, he is focusing investigations on identifying and characterizing protein factors that control the initiation of DNA replication. S. cerevisiae has proven to be a useful organism because eukaryotes' origins of replication are well characterized, and the origin consensus sequence has been identified. His findings, in combination with advanced knowledge of budding yeast genetics, have permitted the identification of numerous protein factors associated with replication origins, including members of the pre-replicative complex (pre-RC), which assembles at origins in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. The pre-RC must be present for origins to fire, and it is rapidly disassembled in the S phase. In addition to the pre-RC, the activity of protein kinase complexes such as Clb/Cdc28 and Dbf4/Cdc7 is required to trigger replication. Homologues of these proteins are found in a wide variety of organisms, including humans, and have demonstrated promise as diagnostic markers for cell proliferation and potential malignancies. Work in Professor Duncker's laboratory aims to study the way these kinase complexes act at origins, characterize novel origin-associated proteins, and determine the protein factors that regulate cell cycle checkpoints.
Includes fields like Clinical, Cognitive, Developmental, and Industrial/Organizational Psychology.