Directory | Contact | Careers | Intranet | Home

Scripps Research Joint Appointments

Department of Cell Biology
Faculty, Kellogg School of Science and Technology

Research Focus

Preservation of Genome Integrity; Cellular Responses to Environmental Toxins
Understanding how cells respond to genotoxic and cytotoxic stress is essential for developing new strategies to prevent and treat cancer and many other diseases. We investigate these mechanisms in fission yeast, an experimental organism ideally suited for high throughput genetic screens, proteomic analysis of protein complexes, whole genome expression analysis by microarray, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and live cell imaging of signaling proteins by deconvolution microscopy.

Education

B.S., Biology, University of California, Irvine, 1978
Ph.D., Genetics, University of Washington, 1982

Professional Experience

Postdoctoral
ZymoGenetics, Inc. Seattle, Washington, 1982-1983
University of Sussex, England, 1983-1984, with Sir Paul Nurse
Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) Laboratories, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, England, 1984-1987, with Sir Paul Nurse

Selected References

Boddy, M. N., Gaillard, P.-H. L., McDonald, W. H., Shanahan, P., Yates, J. R., Russell, P. Mus81-Eme1 are essential components of a Holliday junction resolvase. Cell 107:537-548, 2001.

Rodriguez-Gabriel, M.A., Burns, G., McDonald, W.H., Martin, V., Yates, J. R. 3rd, Bahler, J. Russell, P. RNA binding protein Csx1 mediates global control of gene expression in response to oxidative stress. EMBO J. 22:6256-6266, 2003.

Du, L.-L., Nakamura, T.M., Russell, P. (2006) Histone modification-dependent and -independent pathways for recruitment of checkpoint protein Crb2 to double-strand breaks. Genes Dev. 20:1583-1596, 2006.

Limbo, O., Chahwan, C., Yamada, Y., de Bruin, R.A.M., Wittenberg, C., Russell, P. (2007) Ctp1 is a cell cycle-regulated protein that functions with Mre11 complex to control double-strand break repair by homologous recombination. Molecular Cell 28:134-146.

Williams, J.S., Hayashi, T., Yanagida, M. Russell, P. (2009) Fission yeast Scm3 mediates stable assembly of Cnp1 (CENP-A) into centromeric chromatin. Molecular Cell, 33:287-299.

Williams, R.S., Dodson, G.E., Limbo, O.L., Yamada, Y., Williams, J.S., Grant, G.,  Classen, S., Glover, J.N. M., Iwasaki, H., Russell, P., Tainer, J.A.T. (2009) Nbs1 flexibly tethers Ctp1 and Mre11-Rad50 to coordinate double-strand break processing and repair. Cell, 139:87-99.