UT Health San Antonio

P. Renee Yew, Ph.D.

Professor

Chair - Committee on Graduate Studies, Integrated Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

Director- Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine Discipline of the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

Chair - Committee on Graduate Studies, Personalized Molecular Medicine Graduate Program

Director- Personalized Molecular Medicine Graduate Program

Currently seeking M.S. & Ph.D. students

Our research is focused on understanding how the cell cycle is regulated and coordinated to maintain faithful genomic integrity.  We have studied the regulation of S phase entry, a major checkpoint of cell division, when cells must correctly and with high fidelity initiate DNA replication while preventing re-initiation and re-replication.  Misregulation of this transition leads to genomic instability, a hallmark of cancer.  We use both mammalian cells and extracts from the frog, Xenopus laevis, to study cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, replication factors, ubiquitin ligases, and tumor suppressors that are key regulators of the cell cycle.  We strive to understand the roles of these factors in genome maintenance and how to correct the consequences of their aberrant regulation in cancer.