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Wood Laboratory

Richard Wood, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

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Wood Laboratory

Areas of Research

DNA Repair
DNA Polymerases
Genome Stability
Genetic Predisposition to Cancers

Welcome to the Wood Laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Research in our group explores the mechanisms of genome stability and the consequences of altered stability for cancer. Our research includes defining the biochemical mechanisms underlying the repair of cross-links between DNA strands and understanding the DNA polymerases that help cells tolerate DNA damage.

The research focus of the Wood Lab is genomic stability, with a special emphasis on the functions of the DNA polymerases that help cells tolerate DNA damage. It is important to meticulously define the mechanisms of DNA repair because such repair is a front-line defense against mutation-causing DNA damage that can lead to cancer. Mammalian cells have developed numerous strategies to repair damaged DNA and have devoted many hundreds of genes and proteins to DNA repair. Moreover, understanding DNA repair is essential for improving cancer treatment as the aim of many cancer therapies is to disable cancer cell division by targeting tumor DNA with DNA-damaging radiation and drug therapies.

Research in the Wood Lab employs a broad spectrum of experimental approaches, ranging from fundamental biochemistry and proteomics to cell biology and genetics, particularly genetic engineering to develop new models for studying impaired repair and mutagenesis pathways.

Wood Lab on the town! Group photo at Barnett Newman's "Broken Obelisk," outside Rothko Chapel. The lab celebrated the 2023 Summer Solstice with a "Performance for Contemplation" given by Hamid Drake, renowned jazz drummer and percussionist. Left to right: Ehiguese Obiomon (summer student), Mark Returan, Mélanie Prodhomme, Dorcas Oladapo, Adele Guerin, Rick Wood, and Zeba Siddiqui (postdoctoral fellow)

Wood Lab visits the Houston Zoo, 2023. Left to right: Dorcas Oladapo (Research Assistant), Denisse Carvajal-Maldonado (postdoctoral fellow), Mark Returan (Research Assistant), Rick Wood (PI), Adele Guerin (Sr. Research Assistant), Mélanie Prodhomme (postdoctoral fellow), Yuzhen Li (postdoctoral fellow)

Learn more about our research

Wood Lab Research Page

News, Publications and Events

Our ongoing collaborations with the Doublié, Rothenberg, Gupta and Ramsden labs have led to several publications describing the varied and intricate roles polymerases play during theta-mediated end joining, "Stepwise requirements for polymerases δ and θ in theta-mediated end joining," published in Nature, "Sequential requirements for distinct Polθ domains during theta-mediated end joining." published in Molecular Cell, and "Dynamic stem-loop extension by Polθ and templated insertion during DNA repair," published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The lab welcomed Zeba Siddiqui, Ph.D., a postdoc with a doctorate in microbiology from the Department of Biosciences, Integral University, Uttar Pradesh, India in 2023.

Congratulations to Rick Wood, Ph.D., on his election to the National Academy of Sciences (May 2, 2023)! Read more about this wonderful achievement here. Rick has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018), as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2013), EMBO (1998), and the Royal Society (1997). He is also a member of The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST).

Postdoc Denisse Carvajal, Ph.D., departed the lab in April 2023 for an exciting, new opportunity at ORIC (Overcoming Resistance in Cancer) Pharmaceuticals.

Former lab graduate student Matt Yousefzadeh, Ph.D., who graduated in 2015, has started his own independent research lab, focused on aging, at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, New York (March, 2023). Great news, Matt!

Not only was the Wood Lab the winner of the 2022 Freezer Challenge (and a delicious lab lunch) from the Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, they also won an overall "Top Hospital/Clinical Laboratory Award" in the Small Lab category. They saved 110 kWh/day! Way to go everyone, especially senior research assistant and lab manager Adele Guerin!

Mélanie Prodhomme, Ph.D., was selected as an MD Anderson Odyssey Fellow (FY2023) and co-authored a review article in Cancer Science (2022)!

Publication: Vanson S, Li Y, Wood RD, Doublié S. Probing the structure and function of polymerase θ helicase-like domain. DNA Repair (Amst). 2022 Aug;116:103358. PMID: 35753097 (review)

Publication: Llorens-Agost M, Ensminger M, Le HP, Gawai A, Liu J, Cruz-García A, Bhetawal S, Wood RD, Heyer WD, Löbrich M. POLθ-mediated end joining is restricted by RAD52 and BRCA2 until the onset of mitosis. Nat Cell Biol. 2021 Oct;23(10):1095-1104. PMID: 34616022

Congratulations to Sara Martin, Ph.D., who defended her dissertation and has now had her thesis work published in Cell Reports, 2021. Dr. Martin is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University in Medford, MA, where she was selected as an IRACDA (Institutional Research and Academic Career Development) scholar in May 2021.

Publication: Martin SK, Tomida J, Wood RD. Disruption of DNA polymerase ζ engages an innate immune response. Cell Reports. 2021 Feb 23;34(8):108775. PMID: 33626348

Rick Wood, Ph.D., is the winner of the 2021 Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society Award, which recognizes outstanding research contributions in the areas of environmental mutagenesis and genomics.

Welcome to postdoctoral fellow Mélanie Prodhomme, Ph.D., who joined us from the Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon (CRCL).

Publication: Hwang T, Reh S, Dunbayev Y, Zhong Y, Takata Y, Shen J, McBride KM, Murnane JP, Bhak J, Lee S, Wood RD, Takata KI. Defining the mutation signatures of DNA polymerase θ in cancer genomes. NAR Cancer. 2020 Sep;2(3):zcaa017. PMID: 32885167

Publication: Carvajal-Garcia J, Cho JE, Carvajal-Garcia P, Feng W, Wood RD, Sekelsky J, Gupta GP, Roberts SA, Ramsden DA. Mechanistic basis for microhomology identification and genome scarring by polymerase theta. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Apr 14;117(15):8476-8485. PMID: 32234782

The lab welcomes postdoctoral fellow Yuzhen Li, Ph.D., who received her PhD degree from Tsinghua University in China. She joins postdoc Denisse Carvajal, Ph.D. from St. Louis University who joined the lab in 2018. Denisse went on to join ORIC Pharmaceuticals in 2023.

The Wood lab continues to collaborate with former lab members Kei-ichi Takata, who now leads a laboratory at the Institute for Basic Science, Center for Genomic Integrity, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in Ulsan, S. Korea, and Junya Tomida, Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Rick Wood, Ph.D. was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018). Congratulations, Rick!

Publication: Feng W, Simpson DA, Carvajal-Garcia J, Price BA, Kumar RJ, Mose LE, Wood RD, Rashid N, Purvis JE, Parker JS, Ramsden DA, Gupta GP. Genetic determinants of cellular addiction to DNA polymerase theta. Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 19;10(1):4286. PMID: 31537809

Publication: Martin SK, Wood RD. DNA polymerase ζ in DNA replication and repair. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Sep 19;47(16):8348-8361. PMID: 31410467

Publication: Liu X, Jiang Y, Takata KI, Nowak B, Liu C, Wood RD, Hittelman WN, Plunkett W. CNDAC-induced DNA double strand breaks cause aberrant mitosis prior to cell death. Mol Cancer Ther. Mol Cancer Ther. 2019 Dec;18(12):2283-2295. PMID: 31501277

Publication: Feng W, Simpson DA, Carvajal-Garcia J, Price BA, Kumar RJ, Mose LE, Wood RD, Rashid N, Purvis JE, Parker JS, Ramsden DA, Gupta GP. Genetic determinants of cellular addiction to DNA polymerase theta. Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 19;10(1):4286. PMID: 31537809

We are pleased to have past and/or present research support from the National Institutes of Health. Past funding sources have included NIH, DOD, EMBO, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, the Human Frontiers Science Program, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Learn more about our research

Wood Lab, Summer 2022

Wood Lab, Summer 2021

Wood Lab, Summer 2019

A double-fluorescent Cre reporter system was used to monitor Cre recombinase activity in skin. In this system, the transgene mT/mG expresses red fluorescence in cell membranes before Cre-mediated recombination and green fluorescence after Cre-mediated recombination. We have used this system in conditional knock-out strains to monitor cell-specific expression of Cre activity and infer where our gene of interest is no longer expressed.

Wood Lab, Spring 2015