Prof. Dr. Matthias Altmeyer

Area of Research

Description of Research Interest

Damage to our genetic material can lead to dysfunctional gene products, which in turn can greatly affect cell function and cause disease. Cancer is most prominently associated with increased mutational loads and many tumors show signs of genome instability. To reduce the risk of mutations, our cells have developed sophisticated mechanisms to minimize DNA damage and repair genetic lesions efficiently when they occur. Many of these mechanisms are subverted in cancer, indicating that they provide a natural barrier for cancer development. On the other hand, the deregulation of cellular genome caretaker functions in cancer may constitute cancer-specific vulnerabilities that can be exploited by precision medicine. Our research aims at elucidating cellular mechanisms of genome integrity maintenance. Specifically, we investigate how different chromatin states affect DNA repair reactions, and how the DNA repair machinery itself uses spatially and temporally confined chromatin modifications to safeguard genome integrity. To achieve our aims we employ advanced cell imaging techniques, in particular time-resolved microscopy of chromatin dynamics in response to DNA breakage, and multivariate automated high-content imaging of cell populations exposed to irradiation and chemotherapeutics. By combining our tailored cell imaging setup with targeted perturbations of cell functions through chemical and reverse genetics we aim at identifying and characterizing hitherto unknown genome caretakers.

Special Expertise

Cell cycle-resolved high-content fluorescence microscopy
Phenotypic cell-based screens
Genome stability