Iulia Kis

Research Summary

Interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) are DNA lesions induced by both physiological cellular metabolism and chemotherapeutic drugs and can block normal DNA replication and transcription. Advances in the field of DNA repair led to a good understanding of ICL repair during DNA replication, but much less is known about transcription-coupled ICL repair. My DPhil project focuses on investigating how ICLs are recognized and processed in a transcription-associated manner and how this differs from other transcription-coupled and global genome repair pathways.

Biography

I graduated with a first class degree in Medical Biosciences at Imperial College London.  I completed my dissertation research project in the laboratory of Dr. Ana Costa-Pereira, where my dissertation focused on the effect of histone methyltransferase inhibitors on responses to immunotherapy in ovarian cancer. Previously, shorter projects I completed included genetic engineering as part of a research internship in the lab of Dr. Andy Porter at Imperial College London and a year-long group research project on the role of TRF2 in cytokine release post Mycobacterium Tuberculosis infection.

I am a Public Outreach Ambassador at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, and an editor at The Oxford Scientist.