The Project

Hi there,

I thought i'd give a brief introduction to the project and why i'm doing it.

I'm working with Dr. Felicity Watts in the Sussex Centre for Genome Damage and Stability. I feel very lucky to have been given this placement by the Biochemical Society and the Genome Centre because it has given me a chance to experience what it is like to work in DNA stability and repair research which is what I believe I may want to do in the future.

The project I have been given to work on concerns the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in chromosomes. This is where processes have caused mutations that cause a loss of function in both alleles of a gene. LOH often involves the removal of multiple genes and even whole chromatid arms. In diploid cells such as our own, we should have two copies of each gene and if one ceases to work the other can fill in for it. LOH removes this second copy making the likelyhood of cancer or other diseases much higher.

The centromere is extremely important in chromosome segregation and mutations occuring in the centromere repeats may be what causes this loss and chromosomal rearrangement. I will be studying the stability of the chromosome with mutations placed in different locations using a genetically engineered mini chromosome in the fission yeast; S. pombe.

Well thats all i'll say for now, lest my post become to essay-like. Should make a very interesting project though!