Telomere Biology Lab

Telomeres are nucleoprotein complexes that protect chromosome ends from illegitimate DNA recombination, repair, and nucleolytic activities. Due to end replication problem telomeres tend to get shorter with each DNA replication cycle. Telomere shortening contributes to tumour suppression and genome instability in cancer. Most cancers activate Telomerase to prevent telomere shortening, and about 10% of the cancers follow “Alternative lengthening of telomere” pathway for telomere maintenance. Telomeres are transcribed into TERRA (Telomere repeat containing RNA). Higher levels of TERRA is associated with telomeric R-loops formation and DNA damage. TERRA levels are also seen to be elevated in several cancers.

My Lab is interested in studying the role of telomere associated proteins and telomeric transcript TERRA in various cellular processes and diseases.