Randy
Strich, Ph.D.
Associate
Professor
UMDNJ-School
of Osteopathic Medicine
Department
of Molecular Biology
strichra@umdnj.edu
Research
Interests
Our
research focuses on two main questions.
First, resistance
to anti-cancer agents is the predominant reason why chemotherapy regimens fail
to eradicate disseminated malignancies. Therefore, elucidating the resistance
mechanisms is of great importance for improving patient outcome. The pathway
that responds to reactive oxygen species (ROS) appears to be of singular importance
for influencing drug sensitivity. My laboratory identified the conserved yeast
cyclin C-cyclin dependent kinase 8 as important regulators of the ROS response
and programmed cell death in budding yeast. We are currently expanding
these studies into the mouse system to determine how this pathway influences
drug sensitivity in both normal and transformed cells.
Second,
meiosis is a specialized, highly conserved process designed to redistribute
the genetic material and produce haploid cells capable of sexual reproduction.
Unlike mitotic cell division, little is known about how the different meiotic
landmark events are coordinated. My laboratory investigates the regulation of
genes required for meiotic development in the budding yeast S. cerevisiae.
Specifically, we are studying the interplay between transcription factor regulation
and chromatin remodeling that mediates the transient transcription expression
profiles observed during meiosis
Recent
Publications
Bourbon, H.M., Aguilera, A., Ansari, A.Z., Asturias, F.J.,
Berk, A.J., Bjorklund, S., Blackwell, T.K., Borggrefe, T., Carey, M., Carlson,
M., et al. (2004). A Unified Nomenclature for Protein Subunits of Mediator Complexes
Linking Transcriptional Regulators to RNA Polymerase II. Mol Cell 14, 553-557.
Dimitrova, I., Toby, G.G., Tilid, E., Strich, R., Kampranis, S.C., and Makrisa,
A.M. (2004). Expression of Bax in yeast affects not only the mitochondria but
3 also vacuolar integrity and intracellular protein traffic. FEBS Lett 566,
100-104.
Strich, R. (2004). Meiotic DNA Replication. In Current Topics in Developmental
Biology, G. Schatten, ed. (San Diego, CA: Elsevier Inc.), pp. 29-60.
Strich, R., Mallory, M.J., Jarnik, M., and Cooper, K.F. (2004). Cyclin B-Cdk
activity stimulates meiotic re-replication in budding yeast. Genetics 167, 1621-1628.
Strich, R. (2005). Protein interaction analysis: suppressor hunting. In Encyclopedic
Reference of Genomics and Proteomics in Molecular Medicine, K. Ruckpaul, and
D. Ganten, eds. (Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag).
Krasely, E., Cooper, K.F., Mallory, M.J., Dunbrack, R.L., Jr., and Strich,
R. (2006). Regulation of the Oxidative Stress Response Through Slt2p-Dependent
Destruction of Cyclin C in S. cerevisiae. Genetics 172, 1477-1486.
Krasely, E., Mallory, M., Tan, G.T., and Strich, R. (2007). Stress-Induced
Destruction of the Yeast C-type Cyclin Requires Nuclear Export and Mitochondrial
Association. Mol. Biol. Cell In Revision.
Mallory, M.J., Cooper, K.F., and Strich, R. (2007). Meiosis-specific destruction
of the Ume6p transcriptional repressor by the Cdc20-directed APC/C. Mol. Cell.
27:951-961.
Cooper, K.F., Mallory, M.J., Guacci, V., and Strich, R. (2007). Pds1p is
required for recombination and meiotic progression in S. cerevisiae. Genetics.
In revision.