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William S. Dynan, Ph.D.
Professor and GRA Eminent Scholar
Chief, Nanomedicine and Gene Regulation Program
Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics
Office: CA-3006
E-mail:
Phone: 706-721-8756
Nanomedicine and Gene Regulation
Nanomedicine is the field concerned with characterization and manipulation of biological processes on the nanometer scale. Processes studied in the Dynan laboratory include:
- The interaction of ionizing radiation with living systems
- Assembly and function of DNA repair nanomachines
- Modification of repair nanomachines for therapeutic benefit.
- Clinical proteomics
Current research projects in the Dynan lab include :
Low dose radiation biology:
The laboratory uses a model organism, the Japanese medaka fish, to investigate genome instability and tissue effects caused by low-dose exposure to gamma-rays, protons, and energetic heavy particles.
DNA double-strand break repair:
DNA double-strand breaks are caused by ionizing radiation exposure. The laboratory has developed a system for assembly of functional repair complexes from just seven pure polypeptides. Together with a worldwide network of collaborators in the Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines, the laboratory is developing methods to tag repair proteins with bright, photostable probes to allow visualization of single repair complexes. They have also used the reconstituted system to identify and characterize new proteins that stimulate the double-strand break repair reaction.
Re-engineering DNA repair machines for gene correction:
With their Nanomedicine collaborators, the laboratory is developing approaches to adapt DNA repair pathways to correct inherited genetic defects responsible for hemoglobinopathies and other diseases.
Development of a clinical radiosensitizer:
The laboratory is testing a therapeutic antibody fragment that targets the repair machinery and increases the sensitivity of cancer cells to radiation therapy. The antibody is being tested in preclinical models.
Clinical proteomics:
The laboratory has developed methods that allow characterization of nearly 1000 or protein biomarkers simulataneously in samples of only a few thousand cells. Studies include cervical, colorectal, and head and neck squamous cell cancers.
The work is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Georgia Research Alliance. Dr. Dynan is an Eminent Scholar of the Georgia Research Alliance.
International
Graduate Exchange Trainee Program. Dr. Dynan directs this program,
which provides opportunities for Ph.D. students at our partner universities
to perform dissertation research for two to three years at the Medical of
Georgia prior to returning to their home institution to receive a degree.
The program is particularly suited to trainees who wish to obtain an
advanced degree with less interruption to their career in academic medicine
than if they were to enter a U.S.-based Ph.D. program. Partners include
Wuhan University School of Medicine, Hubei Province, China and Memorial
Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University School of Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong
Province, China. The IGET program is administered through the MCG School of Graduate Studies.
Nucleic
Acids Research. Dr. Dynan is an Executive Editor of
NAR, which publishes the
results of leading edge research into physical, chemical, biochemical and
biological aspects of nucleic acids and proteins involved in nucleic acid
metabolism and/or interactions.