DNA Repair Enzymes: Structure, Biophysics, and Mechanism

Dr. Eichman is a Professor of Biological Sciences and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University, where his laboratory investigates the structural mechanisms of protein machines involved in maintenance of genome integrity. Professor Eichman was initially trained as a synthetic organic chemist at the University of Mississippi (B.S., Chemistry, 1993). He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2000 from Oregon State University, where he used X-ray crystallography to study the effects of crosslinking agents on DNA structure and determined the landmark structure of the Holliday junction, the four-stranded DNA intermediate formed during genetic recombination. As an NIH postdoctoral fellow from 2000-2004 with Tom Ellenberger at Harvard Medical School, Eichman studied the structural enzymology of DNA repair and replication proteins. Current projects in the Eichman lab focus on base excision repair of DNA alkylation damage and restart of stalled replication forks during the DNA damage response. Dr. Eichman holds the 2009 Young Investigator Award from the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Award for Research, two Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Impact Awards, and in 2013 became a member of the Faculty of 1000. Eichman teaches introductory and advanced undergraduate biochemistry and serves as the co-Director of the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Program in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology.

1. MacroBac: New Technologies for Robust and Efficient Large-Scale Production of Recombinant Multiprotein Complexes Scott D. Gradia, Justin P. Ishida, Miaw-Sheue Tsai, Chris Jeans, John A. Tainer and Jill O. Fuss 2. Production and Assay of Recombinant Multisubunit Chromatin Remodeling Complexes David M. Rees, Oliver Willhoft, Chia-Liang Lin, Rohan Bythell-Douglas and Dale B. Wigley 3. Analysis of Functional Dynamics of Modular Multidomain Proteins by SAXS and NMR Matthew K. Thompson, Aaron C. Ehlinger and Walter J. Chazin 4. Use of Single-Cysteine Variants for Trapping Transient States in DNA Mismatch Repair Peter Friedhoff, Laura Manelyte, Luis Giron-Monzon, Ines Winkler, Flora Groothuizen and Titia K. Sixma 5. Expression and Structural Analyses of Human DNA Polymerase ? (POLQ) Andrew W. Malaby, Sara K. Martin, Richard D. Wood and Sylvie Doublié 6. Structural Studies of RNases H2 as an Example of Crystal Structure Determination of Protein-Nucleic Acid Complexes Malgorzata Figiel and Marcin Nowotny 7. DNA-PKcs, Allostery, and DNA Double-Strand Break Repair: Defining the Structure and Setting the Stage Dimitri Y. Chirgadze, David B. Ascher, Tom L. Blundell and Bancinyane L. Sibanda 8. Single-Particle Electron Microscopy Analysis of DNA Repair Complexes Marta Sawicka, Ricardo Aramayo, Rafael Ayala, Robert Glyde and Xiaodong Zhang 9. Using Atomic Force Microscopy to Characterize the Conformational Properties of Proteins and Protein-DNA Complexes that Carry Out DNA Repair Sharonda LeBlanc, Hunter Wilkins, Zimeng Li, Parminder Kaur, Hong Wang and Dorothy A. Erie 10. Single-Molecule Methods for Nucleotide Excision Repair: Building a System to Watch Repair in Real Time Muwen Kong, Emily C. Beckwitt, Luke Springall, Neil M. Kad and Bennett Van Houten 11. Next-Generation DNA Curtains for Single-Molecule Studies of Homologous Recombination Michael M. Soniat, Logan R. Myler, Jeffrey M. Schaub, Yoori Kim, Ignacio F. Gallardo and Ilya J. Finkelstein 12. Detection of Reaction Intermediates in Mg2+-Dependent DNA Synthesis and RNA Degradation by Time-Resolved X-Ray Crystallography Nadine Samara, Yang Gao, Jinjun Wu and Wei Yang 13. Analyzing the Catalytic Activities and Interactions of Eukaryotic Translesion Synthesis Polymerases Kyle T. Powers and M.T. Washington 14. Kinetic Methods for Studying DNA Glycosylases Functioning in Base Excision Repair Christopher T. Coey and Alexander C. Drohat 15. Transient Kinetic Methods for Mechanistic Characterization of DNA Binding and Nucleotide Flipping Jenna M. Hendershot and Patrick J. O’Brien 16. What Combined Measurements from Structures and Imaging Tell Us About DNA Damage Responses Chris A. Brosey, Zamal Ahmed, Susan P. Lees-Miller and John A. Tainer