Lorraine S. Symington
Columbia University
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Primary Section: 26, Genetics Secondary Section: 21, Biochemistry Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2020)
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Biosketch
Dr. Lorraine Symington is the Harold S. Ginsberg Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York. Dr. Symington is a geneticist recognized for her work on the mechanisms of homology-directed double-strand break (DSB) repair using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an experimental system. Dr. Symington grew up near London, UK. She received her B.Sc. degree in Biology from the University of Sussex, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Glasgow studying horizontal gene transfer in bacteria. After postdoctoral training in DNA biochemistry at Harvard Medical School and in yeast genetics at the University of Chicago, she joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1988. Dr. Symington is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a Fellow of the AAAS, and is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Research Interests
Dr. Symington’s research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of homology-directed double-strand break (DSB) repair using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an experimental system. DSBs are a major threat to genome stability and can arise during normal cell growth or after exposure of cells to DNA damaging agents. The failure to repair or inaccurate repair of DSBs can result in loss of genetic information or chromosome rearrangements, respectively, and is the underlying cause of a number of hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes. A longstanding interest in the Symington laboratory is the mechanism for processing of ends at DSBs, a critical step to initiate homology-dependent repair. Her work led to the commonly accepted model that end processing occurs by a two-step mechanism, the first catalyzed by the conserved Mre11 complex, and the second involving two functionally redundant nucleases, Exo1 and Sgs1-Dna2. In addition, her research has yielded novel insights into the mechanism of break-induced replication (BIR), the role of the single-stranded DNA binding protein RPA in preventing genome rearrangements, and the identification of nucleases involved in resolution of recombination intermediates.
