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Dr. Patricia Lynn Opresko, PhD

Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health

Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology

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Contact

Hillman Cancer Center, 5117 Centre Avenue, Suite 2.6a, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
R-znvy: cyb9@cvgg.rqh
Primary Phone: 967-178-2219
Fax: 967-178-2352
Web site: http://www.pitt.edu/~plo4/

Assistant(s):

Lynette Clark, yipynex@cvgg.rqh, 967-179-4255

Personal Statement

My lab studies DNA damage and repair at telomeres. Telomeres are the caps at
chromosome ends that are essential for preserving the genome. When chromosomes lose their telomere caps the cells age and this contributes to the onset of degenerative diseases with
aging. If chromosomes lose their telomere caps in pre-cancerous cells then this causes genetic alterations that hasten the progression to cancer. Understanding how telomere damage and repair happens should lead to new intervention strategies aimed at preserving these regions of the genome that are so critical for protecting our chromosomes and maintaining youthful cells.

Education

1994 | DeSales University, Center Valley, PA | Bachelors of Science in Chemistry and Biology
2000 | Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA | PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Teaching

I co-direct the following courses:

EOH 2310 Molecular Fundamentals will be taught again in Fall of 2019

EOH 3305 Genome Instability and Human Disease will be taught again in Spring of 2020

I also lecture in EPIDEM 2980 Biology and Physiology of Aging, EOH 2175 General Toxicology, EOH 3210 Pathophysiology and Environmental Disease, and HUGEN 2031 Introduction to Human Genetics

Selected Publications

1. Orenstein, A., Berlyoung, A.S., Rastede, E.E., Pham, H.H., Fouquerel, E., Murphy, C.T.,
Leibowitz, B.J., Yu, J., Srivastava, T., Armitage, B.A., and Opresko, P.L. gPNA FRET Pair Miniprobes
for Quantitative Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization to Telomeric DNA in Cells
and Tissue. Molecules, 2017. 22(12). Pil: E2117. PMID: 29207465.

2. Zhou, J., Chan, J., Lambele, M., Yusufzai, T., Stumpff, J., Opresko, P.L., Thali, M., and Wallace, S.S. NEIL3 repairs telomere damage during S phase to secure chromosome segregation at mitosis. Cell Reports, 2017. 20: 2044-2056. PMID:28854357.

3. Fouquerel, E., Lormand, J.*, Bose, A.*, Lee, H.-T., Kim, G.S., Li, J., Sobol, R.W., Freudenthal, B.D., Myong, S., and Opresko, P.L. Oxidative guanine base damage regulates human telomerase activity. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2016. 23: 1092-1100. PMID 27820808. PMCID: PMC5140714.

4. Garcia-Exposito, L*., Bournique, E.*, Bergoglio, V.*, Bose, A., Barroso-Gonzalez, J.-B., Zhang,
S., Roncaioli, J.L., Lee, M.Y., Wallace, C.T., Watkins, S.C., Opresko, P.L., Hoffmann, J.-S., and
O’Sullivan, R.J. Proteomic profiling reveals a specific role for translesion DNA polymerase eta in the alternative lengthening of telomeres. Cell Reports, 2016. 17: 1858-1871. PMID 27829156. * these authors contributed equally.

5. Parikh, D., Fouquerel, E., Murphy, C.T., Wang, H., and Opresko, P.L. Telomeres are partly shielded from ultraviolet-induced damage and proficient for nucleotide excision repair of photoproduct. Nature Communications, 2015. 6:8214. PMID:26351258; PMCID:PMC4566151.