Cell Reports: EWSR1::FLI1 promotes neocentromere formation in Ewing sarcoma cells (Zheng, Sung Lab, Kitagawa Lab)

August 17, 2026

Risa Kitagawa1,2 ∙ Ediri E. Metitiri1,2 ∙ Bin Yu1,2 ∙ Changxian Shen1,2,6 ∙ Alexander J.R. Bishop1,3,5 ∙ Siyuan Zheng1,4 ∙ Peter J. Houghton1,2 ∙ Katsumi Kitagawa1,2,7 Send email to kitagawak@uthscsa.edu Highlights Summary Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is characterized by chimeric fusions such as EWSR1::FLI1. Chromosome gain or loss is prevalent in EwS, and this chromosome instability (CIN) phenotype correlates with poor treatment outcomes. We previously showed that CENP-A, a centromere-specific histone H3 variant, interacts with EWSR1 via its SYGQ2 motif, an [...]

Nature Communications: HELZ-BRCA2 complex resolves R-loops to drive transcription-coupled homologous recombination (Wasmuth, Zheng, Sung Lab, Zhao)

August 12, 2026

Wenjing Li, Bo Wu, Boya Gao, Elizabeth M. Irvin, Arijit Ghosh, Lillian Eliaz, Yuxin Huang, Youngho Kwon, Clara M. Stiefel, Tram Thi Ngoc Nguyen, David Zhao, Humberto Javier Suarez, Tengyang Ni, Salvador Alejo, O’Taveon Fitzgerald, Xuemei Song, Sandip Kumar Rath, Elizabeth V. Wasmuth, David S. Yu, Siyuan Zheng, Justin Leung, Xiaoyu Xue, Hong Wang, Jae-Hoon [...]

International Journal of Molecular Sciences: Biogenic Metal Nanoparticles from Indian Flora as Programmable Bio-Interfaces: From Phytochemical Coronas to Precision Nanomedicine (Wasmuth Lab)

August 3, 2026

Sharad Shriram Tat Kailas D. Datkhile Jayant R. Pawar Amar R. Mohite Tanisha Sharma Abstract Biogenic metal nanoparticles are naturally covered with the phytochemical corona, which includes plant-derived metabolites. Emerging evidence suggests that the phytochemical corona, together with the intrinsic properties of the metallic core, contributes significantly to the biological identity, therapeutic behavior, and safety [...]

Function: Constitutive mTORC1 Activation in Skeletal Muscle Increases Inflammation but is not Sufficient to Impair Glucose Tolerance (Lai Lab)

July 23, 2026

Erik D. Marchant, Hanna Kalenta, Sean P. Kilroe, Jacquelyn May, Wenjun Z. Martini, Korri S. Weldon, Zhao Lai, and Blake B. Rasmussen  Abstract Aberrant mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling in skeletal muscle has been implicated in aging and insulin resistance; however, it is not known whether chronic mTORC1 activation directly causes glucose intolerance. We tested the hypothesis that constitutive mTORC1 activation in mouse skeletal muscle impairs glucose [...]

Nature Communications: Multifaceted roles of PDS5B in RAD51-dependent homology-directed DNA repair and replication fork protection (Sung Lab, Libich, Olsen, Wasmuth, Rao, et al)

July 22, 2026

Jeffrey N. Katz, Lorena Samentar, Qingming Fang, Jae-Hoon Ji, Wenjing Li, Qiongmei Gao, Sahiti Kuppa, Boya Gao, Cody M. Rogers, Hardeep Kaur, Aida Badamchi Shabestari, Arijit Dutta, Shahrez Syed, Miriam Tovar, Nozomi Tomimatsu, Bipasha Mukherjee, Elizabeth M. Irvin, Shuo Zhou, Amyn A. Habib, David S. Libich, Robert Hromas, Alexander V. Mazin, Manjeet K. Rao, Shaun [...]

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: CST complex promotes second-strand synthesis in break-induced replication (Sung Lab, Malkova, et al)

July 21, 2026

Pilendra Thakre, Jeff Wang, Liping Liu, Sameer Shah, Zhenxin Yan, Nhung Pham, Meng-Chia Tsai, Yuqin Zhao, Cody M. Rogers, Zhitong Feng, Hengyao Niu, Youngho Kwon, Xiaohua Wu, Anna Malkova, Patrick Sung & Grzegorz Ira Abstract Break-induced DNA replication (BIR) is a highly mutagenic recombination pathway used by eukaryotic cells to repair single-ended DNA breaks, mediate mitotic [...]

Nature Communications: Break-induced replication forms long mutable single-strand DNA during meiosis (Malkova)

June 22, 2026

Thanks to advances in treatment, more than 85% of children diagnosed with cancer now survive into adulthood. However, many survivors face long-term health challenges caused by their cancer treatments, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, and reduced quality of life. In this study, researchers followed more than 18,000 childhood cancer survivors over [...]

mBio: Identification and characterization of a SARS-CoV-2 Mpro G23 deletion ensitrelvir-resistant mutant (Gupta Lab)

June 8, 2026

Yao Ma, R. Rahisuddin, Sara H. Mahmoud, Anastasija Cupic, Ahmed Magdy Khalil, Esteban Castro, Nathaniel Jackson, Mahmoud Bayoumi, Shailee Arya, Yogesh K. Gupta, Adolfo García-Sastre , Richard K. Plemper, Luis Martinez-Sobrido ABSTRACT Ensitrelvir is an antiviral drug that specifically targets the conserved main protease (Mpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, mutations [...]

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: Structural insight into how RAD51 paralog exchange regulates RAD51 filament formation (Sung Lab, Hromas, Zhou, Zhao, Wasmuth, Olsen)

June 5, 2026

Yashpal Rawal, Youngho Kwon, Lijia Jia, Eliza A. Ruben, Jae-Hoon Ji, Lijuan Guo, Caleb M. Stratton, Digant Nayak, Miriam Tovar, Qingming Fang, Mohd Azrin Jamalruddin, Shuo Zhou, Sahiti Kuppa, Shahrez Syed, Angela M. Jasper, Jeffrey N. Katz, Cody M. Rogers, Hardeep Kaur, Lorena Samentar, Weixing Zhao, Eloise Dray, Fang Zhang, Svetla Stoilova-McPhie, Alexander B. Taylor, [...]

What if we could stop chronic pain before it starts? (Lai Lab)

May 6, 2026

New research (co-authored by Zhao Lai, PhD) identifies a key immune “master switch” that drives the shift from acute → chronic pain—and blocking it prevented long-term pain in models. [cell.com] A big step toward targeting root causes—not just symptoms. Learn More: