Tainer Laboratory
John A. Tainer, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry | Professor, Molecular and Cellular Oncology | Director, Structural Biology | CPRIT Scholar | NCI Outstanding Investigator
- Departments, Labs and Institutes
- Labs
- Tainer Laboratory
Areas of Research
- DNA Damage Response
- Cancer Biology
- Breast Cancer
- Prostate Cancer
- Epigenetics
- Genetics
- Targeted Therapy
- Immunology
- DNA Repair
Welcome to the Tainer Laboratory
Our lab motto is "Ask better questions." We are located in the Molecular and Cellular Oncology department at MD Anderson Cancer Center on the 7th and 8th floors of the Basic Science Research Building (BSRB/Mitchell Building). We also use the synchrotron beamline SIBLYS at the Advanced Light Source of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) that is directed by Dr. Tainer. Academically, our goal is to train the next generation of leading trans-disciplinary scientists for predictive cancer biology. Our core research goal is to develop and apply advanced methods for innovative experiments to define how macromolecular interactomes and assemblies control cell fates and how these interactome networks are altered in cancer and other disease states. We investigate the structural, molecular and cellular biology of cancer to develop new strategies, biomarkers and targets for diagnosis and therapy.
We apply structural biophysics and cancer bioinformatics on DNA repair, reactive oxygen and immune responses to advance precision oncology. Specifically, the Tainer Laboratory focuses upon the development, application and integration of computational and experimental methods and data to define dynamic molecular and cellular mechanisms enabling predictive knowledge for targeted therapy that changes how others do their research for:
- Genome stability, instability and cancer
- DNA repair and damage response outcomes
- Mechanisms and interplay of reactive oxygen, DNA damage and immune responses
- Cancer biomarkers and targets with designed inhibitors
We integrate structures (X-ray scattering, crystallography and EM) with computation and imaging to reveal functional and predictive dynamic assemblies. We test our results by mutations and chemical inhibitors for foundational knowledge advancing biology, biotech and therapeutics.
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