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: 

Nature Communications: Highly mutagenic copying of telomeric circles promotes ALT establishment (Malkova Lab)

May 5, 2026

Meng-Chia Tsai, Jacob M. Wells, Kelley A. Renninger, Kendra Musmaker, Ryan Pellow, Andrey Malkov, Josep M. Comeron & Anna Malkova Abstract Alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) is a recombination-based pathway that enables cancer cells to maintain telomere length. ALT establishment remains poorly understood due to difficulties in identifying its molecular steps. Here, using Oxford Nanopore sequencing [...]

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: Structural insight into how RAD51 paralog exchange regulates RAD51 filament formation (Rao, Libich, Wasmuth, Sung, Olsen et al)

April 24, 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, [...]

Science Advances: Selective elimination of circulating effector CD8 T cells via LTβR blockade separates anti-CD137 efficacy from toxicity (Lai, Chen)

April 24, 2026

Sergey A. Shein  Anna A. Korchagina  Li-Ju Wang Zhao Lai, Yidong Chen  Jacob S. Fisher  Burkhard Ludewig Jessica N. Lancaster  Yang-Xin Fu , Ekaterina Koroleva and Alexei V. Tumanov Abstract The major barrier to clinical translation of αCD137 immunotherapy is separating antitumor efficacy from hepatotoxicity driven by IFN-γ–producing CD8 T cells. We propose a strategy to limit toxicity by promoting contraction of excessively expanded CD8 T cells. We identify [...]

Journal of Applied Physiology: Hyperactive Muscle mTORC1 Attenuates Functional Adaptations to Endurance Training Despite Alterations in Mitochondrial and Lipid Profiles (Lai Lab)

April 24, 2026

Abstract Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex I (mTORC1) is a key regulator of cell growth and metabolism, and its activity increases with aging. Hyperactivation of mTORC1 is associated with the pathology of sarcopenia and mitochondrial dysfunction. Exercise training has been shown to improve muscle quality and function in people with sarcopenia. However, it is unknown [...]

Clinical Cancer Research: Preclinical Activity of the B7-H3-Targeting Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) Vobramitamab Duocarmazine (Vobra Duo) in Pediatric Cancer Solid Tumors (Chen, Houghton, Kurmasheva Lab)

April 22, 2026

 Edward Favours  Haiying Tang  Peyton Wong  Samuel Ghilu  Vanessa del Pozo  Elena Mironova  Yidong Chen  Tim Stearns  Steven Neuhauser  Eric J. Earley  Stephen W. Erickson Jee Young Kwon  Emily L. Jocoy  David Groff  Kateryna Krytska  Matthew Tsang  Beverly A. Teicher  Yael P. Mossé  E. Anders. Kolb  Monirath Hav  Deryk Loo  Peter J. Houghton  Carol J. [...]

Journal of Biological Chemistry: Structural Basis for the Mechanism and Stability of the EEPD1 5’ Endonuclease (Gupta Lab)

April 10, 2026

Robert A. Hromas1,∗ guptay@uthscsa.edu ∙ Aruna S. Jaiswal1,∗ ∙ Anurag Misra2,∗ ∙ Yaxia Yuan3 ∙ Daohong Zhou3 ∙ John I. Beckman2 ∙ Shailee Arya2 ∙ Adhishree Chidambaram2 ∙ Alexander B. Taylor2 ∙ Wendell Griffith4 ∙ Arunima Jaiswal1 ∙ Elizabeth A. Williamson1 ∙ Yogesh K. Gupta2 guptay@uthscsa.edu  ABSTRACT The 5’ endonuclease EEPD1 initiates repair of replication forks stalled at oxidative DNA damage. EEPD1 has abasic endonuclease activity that can replace APE1 and initiate base excision repair when the cell is overwhelmed with oxidative DNA damage. In this study, we investigated the structural basis of this [...]