Altmeyer Lab, University of Zurich Research Labs
As part of an active scientific community that studies the DNA damage response (DDR) and its impact on cancer and aging, research in the lab of Matthias Altmeyer is aimed at elucidating cellular mechanisms of genome integrity maintenance and their deregulation in human disease. Their research interest is to understand how human cells deal with genotoxic stress assaults and how they coordinate genome maintenance mechanisms with other vital cellular functions. To this end they combine state-of-the-art molecular biology and biochemistry with powerful advanced cell imaging technologies, in particular employing single cell chromatin perturbations, high resolution live cell imaging, automated quantitative microscopy and software-assisted image analysis. By targeted ablation of specific gene functions and high content analyses of DNA damage and repair markers they aim at identifying concealed regulators of the cellular response network to genotoxic stress and at understanding their role for genome maintenance.