The UB community is invited to join us on Monday, October 28th at 4:00pm for a GEM Work-in-Progress science talk presented by Mark Sutton, PhD, Professor in the UB Department of Biochemistry.

Title: Hijacking bacterial translesion DNA synthesis for therapeutic gain

Brief description: Gram-negative ‘superbugs’ pose a serious threat to human health due to their intrinsic antibiotic resistance mechanisms and robust capacity to acquire new determinants. As a result, new therapeutics are required. The goal of this multi-disciplinary, collaborative project with Brian Tsuji (UB School of Pharmacy), Anthony Berdis (Cleveland State University), Thomas Russo (UB School of Medicine) and Nicholas Smith (UB School of Pharmacy) is to hijack bacterial translesion DNA synthesis to incorporate non-natural, chain terminating nucleotides into nascent DNA to effectively block ongoing replication. Translesion DNA synthesis is a mutagenic pathway required for tolerating unrepaired DNA lesions and plays critically important roles in bacterial pathogenesis. We hypothesize chain terminating nucleotide adjuvants will synergize with traditional antibiotics for improved treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections.

To foster cross-disciplinary conversations about ongoing GEM-related research, the GEM Community hosts monthly Work-in-Progress talks during the fall & spring semesters. These informal science talks take place at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, located on UB's Downtown Campus. The speaker schedule for fall 2024 is available on the GEM website: www.buffalo.edu/gem.

We are actively seeking UB faculty, post-doc and student speakers for our GEM Work-In-Progress series! If you would like to present your work at a GEM Work-in-Progress session, please contact Sara Thomas at msthomas@buffalo.edu.

Sara Thomas
Email: msthomas@buffalo.edu