Georgia Tech IBB Lab Tour - Exploring How DNA Repair Works and How It Fails

• This event is a production of the Atlanta Science Tavern.
• Since space is limited, so be thoughtful and take your RSVP seriously.
• The participation of middle-school and high-school students is encouraged.
• There is affordable parking nearby in Area 4 on this map (http://pts.gatech.edu/park/Documents/parking%20map%201213.jpg) (JPEG).
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  Georgia Tech IBB Lab Tour - Exploring How DNA Repair Works and How It Fails

featuring the labs of Kirill Lobachev (http://www.biology.gatech.edu/people/kirill-lobachev), Associate Professor
Francesca Storici (http://www.biology.gatech.edu/people/francesca-storici), Associate Professor
School of Biology
Georgia Institute of Technology

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/d/1/9/e/600_341993662.jpeg

Green fluorescence indicates human cells with RNA-guided DNA repairs (Francesca Storici)
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Since faithful reproduction of DNA is critical to biological systems, mechanisms have evolved to repair breaks in strands of DNA. Without these repairs mutations will result which lead to genetic defects, cancer and premature aging. The way these repairs are accomplished - and sometimes go awry - are the focus of the work of the Lobachev and Storici labs in the Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences at Georgia Tech.

Francesca Storici's research exploits the surprising facts (which she discovered) that RNA is implicated in DNA repair and can even transfer genetic information into the genome of the cell. This finding not only suggests that RNA is, unexpectedly, involved in the evolution of DNA, but also offers the possibility of new approaches for gene therapy.

Kirill Lobachev investigates what happens when cells desperately try to repair potentially devastating breaks in both strands of DNA. Although these desperate measures may insure the survival of the cell, they can trigger bursts of genetic instability that promote the occurrence of mutations, fueling both evolutionary change and the formation of cancer.

Please join us for this tour of Kirill and Francesca's labs at Georgia Tech's Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences and learn how they and their research groups go about exploring the important processes involved in DNA repair.

Format for the event
We will gather in the Suddath Auditorium on the first floor of the IBB Building at 10:30 am. Kirill and Francesca will welcome us and introduce their research programs. We'll then divide up into small groups for the tour, consisting of about half a dozen laboratory stations. The groups will reconvene around noon for questions and answers and a concluding discussion. There are plans in the works for a lunch to follow for those interested.

Stations on the tour will include

• examination of yeast cells via microscope

• spore dissection and manipulation

• chromosome stretching on coverslips

• chromosome separation apparatus and gel documentation

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