Dr. Tanya Paull

Biography

Dr. Paull received a B.S. and M.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University in 1991 and a Ph.D. from UCLA in 1996. She completed post-doctoral research under Dr. Martin Gellert supported by an NIH fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. In 2000, she established her independent laboratory in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of DNA double-strand break repair in eukaryotes and the intersection of DNA damage with oxidative stress signaling and protein homeostasis in human cells. This investigation is relevant to cancer biology and the etiology of neurodegeneration in human populations. Dr. Paull is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 2008 to 2019 and currently holds the Burl Lorene Rogers Chair in Human Health at the Department of Molecular Biosciences. The Paull lab studies the DNA damage response in eukaryotic cells, specifically the activation of checkpoints and repair responses to chromosomal double-strand breaks. The lab investigates components of DNA damage response systems implicated as tumor suppressors in mammals, and studies the proteins involved in maintaining genomic stability in eukaryotes. Additionally, Dr. Paull is interested in the regulation of redox control signaling that occurs in response to oxidative stress in human cells, utilizing biochemistry and molecular biology-based tools to understand the critical proteins and pathways involved in stress response regulation.

Research Interests