My laboratory is primarily interested in understanding how human DNA repair factors function and contribute to genome integrity and instability in normal and cancer cells, respectively. Current areas of interest include investigating mutagenic double-strand break repair pathways, such as alternative end-joining which contributes to genome instability and promotes the proliferation of cancer cells that are mutated in tumor suppressor genes BRCA1/2. Because backup double-strand break repair pathways are essential for the proliferation of BRCA deficient cancer cells, we are interested in developing factors that promote these pathways as anti-cancer drug targets. For example, we aim to develop inhibitors of DNA polymerase theta for targeting BRCA deficient cancers for killing, which is important for the development of personalized medicine in breast, ovarian and other cancers defective in homology-directed repair, including leukemias. Lastly, my laboratory is also interested in developing novel DNA and RNA synthetic biotechnologies and investigating the interplay between RNA and DNA metabolism, such as potential roles for RNA in DNA repair.