Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: Resolution of R-loops and transcription–replication conflicts by SETX–BRCA1–BARD1 complex (Sung Lab, Rao Lab)

April 1, 2026

 Abstract Senataxin (SETX), an RNA–DNA helicase, accumulates at transcription pause sites through the tumor suppressor BRCA1. Here, we provide mechanistic insight into how SETX–BRCA1 resolves transcription-associated R-loops to prevent deleterious outcomes. Specifically, we show that full-length SETX unwinds R-loops with broad specificity and that the complex of BRCA1 and its obligatory partner BARD1 binds R-loops [...]

BioRxiv: Diverse Mechanisms of SMARCB1 Inactivation and Genome Maintenance Defects in Ultra-Rare Malignant Rhabdoid Tumors (Kurmasheva Lab, Chen, Lai)

March 27, 2026

 Elizabeth Rasmussen, Elena Mironova, Zhao Lai, Kendra Maaß, Stefanie Volz, Dias Kurmashev, Stefan M. Pfister, Yidong Chen, Raushan T. Kurmasheva ABSTRACT Malignant rhabdoid tumors (MRTs) are extremely rare and highly aggressive pediatric cancers classically defined by biallelic loss of the SMARCB1 gene, with rare involvement of SMARCA4. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to this loss are not yet fully understood. MRTs occur predominantly in infants, with the highest incidence in children under one year of [...]

BioRxiv: Intrinsically disordered SERBP1 regulates translation through topology-driven G-quadruplex recognition (Libich Lab)

March 19, 2026

       Antoine Baudin, Hoang H. Dinh, Kira Breunig, Xuifen Lei, Xiaoping Xu, View Luiz O. Penalva, David S. Libich Abstract Serpine mRNA-binding protein 1 (SERBP1) is an intrinsically disordered RNA-binding protein that regulates translation and ribosome biogenesis through interactions with ribosomes and other molecular complexes. Despite its regulatory importance and implication in cancer [...]

iScience: Predicting and interpreting protein and phosphoprotein abundance from pan-cancer and single-cell transcriptomes (Chen Lab)

March 12, 2026

 Hui-Mei Tsai1,2,3,12 ∙ Tzu-Hung Hsiao2,4,5,12 ∙ Yu-Chiao Chiu6,7 ∙ Yufei Huang6,7 ∙ Eric Y. Chuang1,8,9,10 chuangey@ntu.edu.tw ∙ Yidong Chen3,11,13 cheny8@uthscsa.edu Highlights • DeepGxP provides a framework to translate transcriptomes into proteomic insight • DeepEnrich links RNA predictors to functional protein pathways and activities • DeepEnrich reveals cancer type-specific EGFR and HER2 phosphorylation patterns • Mutation effects are captured even without mutation data in model training Summary Proteins that impact phenotype and disease are [...]

Chemical Science: Unveiling BCL-xL-specific PROTAC efficiency and dissociation pathways using native mass spectrometry (Olsen, Zhou)

February 24, 2026

 Mohamed I. Gadallah,  Kailyn L. Nonhof,  Digant Nayak,   Peiyi Zhang,   Olivia Dioli,   Guangrong Zheng,    Shaun K. Olsen,  Daohong Zhou  and  Jennifer S. Brodbelt   Author affiliations Abstract Overexpression of anti-apoptotic proteins such as BCL-xL is a hallmark of various cancers and a major driver of resistance to conventional chemotherapies. While small-molecule BCL-xL inhibitors have shown promising outcomes, [...]

Haematologica: IGF2BP3 inhibition: another home run for RNA-binding protein targeting in hematological malignancies (Penalva)

February 10, 2026

 Luiz O.F. Penalva RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are critical regulators of gene expression, aNecting RNA processing till translation. More than 1,500 proteins have been catalogued as RBPs in the human genome. 1 RBPs are very diverse in respect to structure, characteristic of RNA binding domain and function. In fact, RBPs are notoriously multi-functional with some of [...]

BioRxiv: High-throughput mapping of 6,888 RAD51D variants identifies distinct biochemical functions needed for homologous recombination and olaparib response (Sung)

January 30, 2026

 Kristie E. Darrah, Shelby L. Hemker, Yashpal Rawal, Noah J. Goff, Phoebe Parker, Gayatri Ganesan, Caleb M. Stratton, Katherine Oppenheimer, Ella Roberts, Elena Glick, Nicole Banks, Arjun Kumar, Silvia Casadei, Matthew W. Snyder, Katherine Nathanson, Susan M. Domchek, Lea M. Starita, Shaun K. Olsen, Patrick Sung, Jacob O. Kitzman, Kara A. Bernstein Summary The tumor suppressor RAD51D is essential for homologous recombination (HR). Pathogenic variants in RAD51D are associated with breast and ovarian cancers. However, most clinical missense variants are of unknown significance. We performed a multiplex assay of variant effect to test 6,888 RAD51D coding variants for loss-of-function. The resulting variant-to-function [...]

Journal of Biological Chemistry: Phosphoregulation of RAD51AP1 function in homology-directed repair (Sung Lab)

January 16, 2026

 Neelam Sharma1 ∙ Mollie E. Uhrig1,2 ∙ Youngho Kwon3 ∙ Patrick Sung3 ∙ Claudia Wiese1 cwiese@colostate.edu ABSTRACT Homology-directed DNA repair (HDR) is critical for genome stability and tumor suppression. HDR is initiated by the RAD51 single-stranded (ss)DNA nucleoprotein filament, which conducts a homology search and invades a homologous DNA template, forming a displacement loop (D-loop). The RAD51 filament is assisted in these processes by several proteins. One such protein [...]

BioMolecules: The PELP1 Pathway and Its Importance in Cancer Treatment (Rao Lab)

January 13, 2026

 Khaled Mohamed Nassar Panneerdoss Subbarayalu Suryavathi Viswanadhapalli  Ratna K. Vadlamudi Abstract Proline-, glutamic acid-, and leucine-rich protein 1 (PELP1) is a proto-oncogene that serves as a nuclear and cytoplasmic scaffolding protein. PELP1 plays a critical role in nuclear receptor signaling, ribosome biogenesis, chromatin modifications, cell cycle progression, non-genomic signaling, and DNA damage response. PELP1 expression [...]