Arthur J Lustig, PhD

Professor of Biochemistry

Research Interests:
Role of telomere dynamics in chromosome stability and transcriptional regulation

The integrity of the telomere nucleoprotein structures at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes is essential for genomic stability. Telomeric structures must both accommodate the end-replication problem and serve as a buffer against promiscuous nuclease and recombination activities. While most eukaryotes utilize the ribonucleoprotein telomerase for the addition of simple sequence repeats, alternative recombination-based pathways (ALT) exist in both yeast and vertebrates. In humans, ALT pathways are responsible for immortality in 15% of tumors. Our long-term goal is to increase our knowledge of the mechanism, efficiency, and regulation of telomere/telomere recombination that will ultimately provide the means for its manipulationThis information will be critical for the control of the ALT pathway of telomere addition in humans.

Lustig's Curriculum Vitae

Contact:
Arthur J. Lustig, PhD
Department of Biochemistry
1430 Tulane Avenue, SL-43
New Orleans, LA 70112
Office: (504)988-3688
Fax: (504)988-3687
alustig@tulane.edu