Steve Humpal, M.S. student
H2A phosphorylation and DNA repair

Histone H2A is dynamically phosphorylated on residues S122, T126 and S129 in response to a variety of DNA-damaging agents. The overall goal of my project is to identify proteins that bind to the phosphorylated S122 residue and determine if any of these proteins are required for DNA damage repair. The second goal is to determine which repair pathway(s) depend on specific tail modifications of histone H2A. I am using a combination of biochemical and genetic approaches to answer these questions.