Tanya T. Paull

Dr. Paull received her B.S. and M.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford Univ. in 1991, and received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 1996. Her post-doctoral research with Dr. Martin Gellert at NIH was supported by a fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. Dr. Paull established an independent laboratory in 2000 in the Dept. of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research is aimed toward understanding the mechanisms of DNA double-strand break repair in eukaryotes, as well as the intersection between DNA damage, oxidative stress signaling, and protein homeostasis in human cells. This investigation is relevant to cancer biology and etiology as well as the origins of neurodegeneration in the human population. She was an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 2008 through 2019 and is currently the Burl and Lorene Rogers Chair in Human Health and Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences.

Research in the Paull lab is focused on the DNA damage response in eukaryotic cells, specifically the checkpoint activation and DNA repair responses that occur immediately after the introduction of chromosomal double-strand breaks. Several components of these DNA damage response systems have been implicated as tumor suppressors in mammals, and nearly all of the proteins we study are involved in the maintenance of genomic stability in eukaryotic organisms. We are also interested in the regulation of redox control and signaling that occurs in response to oxidative stress in human cells. To study these processes, we use biochemistry and molecular biology-based tools to understand how critical proteins in these pathways function and are regulated in response to stress.