University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 6, 2008

By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer

When Jennifer Surtees chose to pursue a career in molecular biology, she was motivated primarily by the desire to discover “how things work.” But the fact that her research on genome stability also plays an important role in the fight against cancer gives the whole effort an extra sense of purpose, she says.

Jennifer Surtees studies the mechanisms by which cellular proteins detect and correct mistakes that can happen during the process of DNA replication.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI

Surtees, who joined the UB faculty last fall as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, says she is interested in the fundamental questions of genome stability—specifically, the mechanisms by which cellular proteins detect and correct mistakes that can happen during the process of DNA replication.

“In order for cells to be functional and healthy,” she says, “our chromosomes need to remain intact. Different things can happen to our DNA—environmental factors, such as UV light; endogenous oxidative damage; chemicals that induce damage to DNA—that can induce breaks or modification in DNA. These, in general, are all bad things. As a result, many different DNA repair pathways have evolved to recognize and deal with different types of damage to maintain genome stability.”

The pathway preventing a very specific error known as “mismatch repair” plays a particularly important role in her research.

“Every time your cells divide,” she explains, “all of your DNA has to be copied so that each cell gets a copy of the DNA. But during that process of DNA replication, mistakes happen. The polymerase [enzyme] that actually does the replication will occasionally insert the wrong nucleotide or slip back and forth to create deletions and insertions.”

A cell’s mismatch-repair system recognizes these errors, she adds, noting that two very specific proteins involved in the process—MSH2-MSH3 and MSH3-MSH6—not only play an important role in mismatch repair, but also in a problem that can take place during DNA replication in which parts of two chromosomes are fused together, a mistake that has been linked to cancerous tumors, leukemia and several types of lymphoma.

“Really, not very much is known about this pathway in terms of mechanistic details,” she says. “We know the proteins required, but aren’t sure exactly what they’re doing.”

Surtees points out that problems with the genetic-repair mechanisms she studies also are closely associated with a syndrome known as hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, or HNPCC—as well as a predisposition to endometrial cancers and other cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. “Over half the cases of HNPCC are caused by mutations in the mismatch-repair system,” she notes, “and about 80 percent of people who have HNPCC will get colorectal cancer, as opposed to about 2 percent of the rest of the population.” Individuals with the syndrome also are much more likely to develop the cancer in their 40s, rather than in their 60s, the average age of colorectal cancer patients, she says.

“The best route to ultimate treatment and therapies is to really know what should be happening and what’s going wrong,” says Surtees.

The recipient of a bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario and master’s and doctoral degrees in molecular and medical genetics from the University of Toronto, Surtees served as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University. She notes that for three years of her six-year fellowship she was funded by the Terry Fox Research Fellowship of the National Cancer Institute of Canada—an award from a foundation that sponsors races all over the world in honor of Terry Fox, a Canadian cancer survivor who fell victim to a resurgence of the disease while on a cross-country marathon to raise money for cancer research in 1980.

Surtees says she is seeking graduate students and outside grants to support her UB research, as well as helping to teach several graduate seminar courses, including a class on protein structure and function.

“I’m really enjoying the Department of Biochemistry,” she says, noting that UB features “a strong core group of people interested in DNA replication and repair,” including not only faculty in her own department, but also several researchers from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where she recently presented a lecture as part of a molecular and development genetics seminar program.

“There’s a lot of interesting work going on,” she says. “Good colleagues, good support—it’s a very friendly environment.”

Even before joining the UB faculty, Surtees says she was familiar with the university and the City of Buffalo because she used to travel to the area from Cornell to participate in a regional scientific meeting on DNA replication and repair organized annually by Thomas Melendy, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the medical school.

“There are a lot of connections to this type of work here,” she says. “It’s nice to have a community where you can talk to people about things and get ideas from people and just not be working in complete isolation.”

Originally from North Bay, Ontario—a small city about 200 miles north of Toronto—Surtees now resides in the Parkside neighborhood of Buffalo with her husband, Andrew Bukata, a research assistant professor in the Department of Geology, College of Arts and Sciences.

“Buffalo’s a very easy place to live in,” she says, “It’s not like Toronto or New York City or a lot of other metropolises where it’s difficult to get around and a lot more stressful to live in. I’m working in a great department with good students and in a city that I like. What more could you ask for?”