Sister chromatid exchange assay of BLM depletable cell lines

Our Research Unit addresses an important question on the origin of chromosome instability (CIN), which causes structural as well as numerical chromosome aberrations. Importantly, CIN and increased levels of chromosome aberrations are closely associated with many human diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and age-related syndromes and can act as key drivers for disease development and progression. An important condition that causes structural chromosome instability (S-CIN) leading ...

Replication stress is a key driver of genomic instability giving rise to human disease, for instance cancer or developmental disorders. It is caused by a variety of defects such as lesions blocking replication (e.g. DNA interstrand crosslinks) or processes that lead to the exhaustion of DNA precursors. This generates under-replicated DNA and replication intermediates that can be rescued by repair processes requiring homologous recombination between sister chromatids. Often, cells exposed to ...

Genomic instability is a hallmark of cancer and can be frequently induced by replication stress. Incomplete repair of replication intermediates can lead to persistent linkages between sister chromatides, detectable during mitosis as ultra-fine anaphase bridges (UFBs). The active resolution of UFBs via several UFB factors are crucial to prevent mitotic catastrophe, chromosomal missegregations or aneuploidy. Previous studies have already revealed that UFBs are processed by a distinct set of proteins, ...