Developmental Biology Program

The Maria Jasin Lab

Maria Jasin, PhD

William E. Snee Chair

Professor

Human chromosomes are constantly assaulted by challenges to their integrity as a result of either environmental agents that damage DNA or from normal DNA metabolism. The failure to repair damaged DNA faithfully is ultimately responsible for many human diseases, especially cancer. This laboratory focuses on the repair of 1 particular lesion in DNA, the double-strand break (DSB). DSBs arise from agents, such as ionizing radiation, and can also occur spontaneously during DNA replication. Our emphasis is on repair of DSBs by homologous recombination, with a particular interest in the role of homologous recombination in maintaining genetic stability. Understanding the repair of DSBs is not only important for basic science and health concerns, but also impacts on molecular genetic manipulations of mammalian genomes.

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Research Projects

Featured News

MSK Research Highlights September 18, 2024

New MSK research uses saturation genome editing to better understanding of the RAD51C gene, which has been linked to higher risks of breast and ovarian cancer; sheds new light on brain metastasis; and finds a commercially available contrast dye could help surgeons better separate cancer from healthy tissue.

In the Lab

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (Especially for Sex Chromosomes)

One’s big, one’s small. Somehow, they make it work.

In the Lab

Pictured: Charles L. Sawyers, William Polkinghorn & Simon Powell

Molecular Studies Explain Effectiveness of Longtime Treatment for Prostate Cancer

Laboratory studies have revealed an explanation for why androgen-deprivation therapy makes radiation therapy more effective in the treatment of high-risk prostate cancer.

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Publications Highlights

Olvera-León R, Zhang F, Offord V, Zhao Y, Tan HK, Gupta P, Pal T, Robles-Espinoza CD, Arriaga-González FG, Matsuyama LSAS, Delage E, Dicks E, Ezquina S, Rowlands CF, Turnbull C, Pharoah P, Perry JRB, Jasin M, Waters AJ, Adams DJ. High-resolution functional mapping of RAD51C by saturation genome editing. Cell. 2024 Sep 16:S0092-8674(24)00968-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.08.039. PMID: 39299233.

Carver A, Yu TY, Yates LA, White T, Wang R, Lister K, Jasin M, Zhang X. (2024) Molecular basis of FIGNL1 in dissociating RAD51 from DNA and chromatin. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2024.07.16.603765.

Georgieva D, Wang N, Taglialatela A, Jerabek S, Reczek CR, Lim PX, Sung J, Du Q, Horiguchi M, Jasin M, Ciccia A, Baer R, Egli D. (2024) BRCA1 and 53BP1 regulate reprogramming efficiency by mediating DNA repair pathway choice at replication-associated double-strand breaks. Cell Rep. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114006.

Lim PX, Zaman M, Feng W, Jasin M. (2024) BRCA2 promotes genomic integrity and therapy resistance primarily through its role in homology-directed repair. Mol Cell. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.12.025.

Rawal Y, Jia L, Meir A, Zhou S, Kaur H, Ruben EA, Kwon Y, Bernstein KA, Jasin M, Taylor AB, Burma S, Hromas R, Mazin AV, Zhao W, Zhou D, Wasmuth EV, Greene EC, Sung P, Olsen SK. (2023)Structural insights into BCDX2 complex function in homologous recombination. Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06219-w.

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People

Maria Jasin, PhD

William E. Snee Chair

Professor

The Jasin laboratory focuses on double-strand break repair and genomic integrity in mammalian cells and the relationship to tumor suppression.
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

[email protected]: Email Address

Members

Natalia Bonilla

Sr. Administrative Assistant

Matteo Ferrari
Senior Research Scientist

Su (Alex) Jia

Graduate Student WCGS

Darpan Medhi, PhD — Darpan Medhi
Senior Research Scientist

Travis White, PhD — Travis White
Senior Research Scientist

Fang Zhang

Graduate Student (BME)

Raymond Wang

Research Assistant

Lab Alumni

Tehone Jackson

Research Technician

Elizabeth Kass, PhD — Elizabeth Kass
Senior Research Scientist

Katharina Schlacher
Senior Research Scientist

Patricia Sung, PhD — Patricia Sung
Senior Research Technician

Fabio Vanoli, PhD — Fabio Vanoli
Research Associate

Carla M. De Castro Abreu, PhD — Carla M. De Castro Abreu
Research Fellow

Akinori Egashira

Postdoctoral Fellow

Beth Elliot

Postdoctoral Fellow

Hildur Helgadottir

Graduate Student

Anita Kapeller

Graduate Research Assistant

Przemek Matt Krawczyk
Visiting Investigator

Pei Xin Lim, PhD — Pei Xin Lim
Senior Research Scientist

Agnieszka Lukaszewicz, PhD — Agnieszka Lukaszewicz
Senior Research Scientist

Shaun Peterson, PhD — Shaun Peterson
Research Scholar

Andrew Pierce, PhD — Andrew Pierce
Postdoctoral Fellow

Rohit Prakash, PhD — Rohit Prakash
Senior Research Scientist

Christine Richardson
Postdoctoral Fellow

Lianne Vriend
Graduate Research Assistant

Ulrica Westermark
Graduate Research Assistant

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

National Academy of Sciences (2015)
National Academy of Medicine (2016)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2017)
Basser Global Prize for BRCA Research (2018)
Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine (2019)

Fellow of the AACR Academy (2020)
NCI Outstanding Investigator (2020)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Get in Touch

[email protected]

Lab Head Email
212-639-8384

Lab Phone

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Maria Jasin discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Professional Services and Activities

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

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