Kristine E Yoder, PhD

Research Interest

Cancer ● Loss of Heterozygosity ● DNA Damage ● Breast Cancer ● HIV Infections ● Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ● Colorectal Cancer ● Hodgkin Disease ● Sarcoma, Kaposi

DNA repair proteins are central to cancer transformation and progression. The Yoder lab is studying the interactions of host DNA repair proteins and their interactions with HIV cDNA. HIV infection is thwarted by some DNA repair proteins but pirates other DNA repair proteins to enhance infection. The Yoder lab has found that the xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) proteins XPB and XPD participate in an evolutionarily ancient mechanism to protect the genome from invading DNA, including retroviral DNA. We have also shown that proteins throughout the base excision repair (BER) pathway facilitate HIV integration, a necessary part of the viral life cycle.