NEWS & MEDIA
New student!
Adam Walker, a PhD student in Biomedical Sciences at the Vilcek institute has joined the lab! During his rotation with the Petljak lab, Adam will be working on defining mixed-mutation-type mutational signatures in human cancers
February 10th, 2025
New Postdoc arrival
Arinze Okafor, a postdoctoral fellow has earned the title of newest member of the Petljak lab this month! He brings his considerable expertise in computational biology to the Petljak lab for the study of environmental mutagens
February 5th, 2025
New funding!
The Petljak lab has received funding from the Constance J. Milstein Foundation to support research of mutational processes in Breast cancers
January 22nd, 2025
Welcoming a new student
Fiona Sherman, a Vilcek Institute PhD student officially joins the lab this month! As part of her rotation schedule for her PhD, she will be exploring environmental and chemical mutagenesis in human health and disease in the Petljak lab.
January 1st, 2025
Welcoming a new intern
Carson Torrisi, an undergraduate in Finance at Elon University in North Carolina is joining us for a month-long internship to explore the wonderful world of biological research.
December 20th, 2024
Welcoming a new student
The lab welcomes Joyce Zhou, a MSc student at the Vilcek institute to the lab for a 6-month MSc thesis project! During her thesis project, Joyce is investigating the relationship between mutational processes and driver mutations in metastatic cancers
December 15th, 2024
Dr Pearsall presents her research!
At the NYU Langone Monthly CGD research seminar, Dr Pearsall presented “Induction of APOBEC3 mutagenesis by genotoxic treatments in cancer.” – progress on her project to uncover the interplay between chemotherapy and APOBEC3.
October 25rd, 2024
The Petljak Lab moves to CURE!
The lab has relocated to a brand new, modern space in the CURE building in the heart of Manhattan. In addition to a delicious cafeteria and incredible rooftop view, the CURE building houses other labs in the NYU Cancer Genomics Program and numerous biotechnology startups.
October 23rd, 2024
Dr. Petljak delivers seminars at NYU
As an invited speaker, Dr. Petljak presented the lab’s research to the NYU Interdisciplinary Melanoma Program and, in a separate talk, at the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics retreat
October 2024
Dr. Petljak delivers seminar at Beijing conference
Dr. Petljak was invited to speak at the Human Genetics and Genomics conference organized by Nature conferences in Beijing. She presented on the lab’s background and our recent strides in understanding mutational processes in cancer!
October 9-11th, 2024
Dr Petljak speaks at Plastics symposium
At the NYU Langone Health Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards (CIEH) Plastics and Human Health symposium, Dr. Petljak presented the lab’s background, progress, and future directions for the lab’s ongoing microplastic and environmental mutagen projects.
September 23-24th, 2024
Petljak lab secures funding from the Department of Defense
The lab has been awarded a prestigious research grant from the US DoD to investigate the “functional and molecular effects of benzene exposure in hematopoietic stem cells, and evaluate clinical utility of identified indicators of benzene exposure”
September 2024
Funding alert!
The lab has been awarded a grant from the NYU Pathology Translational research program for Genomic Characterization and Mutational Signature Analysis in Microsatellite-Stable Early Onset Colorectal Adenocarcinoma!
September 2024
Dr Petljak presents to NYU SoM leadership
At the annual NYU Grossman School of Medicine Dean’s Luncheon, Dr. Petljak presented the lab’s progress and advances in its first year of existence to senior hospital leadership.
September 2024
Underdog Enzyme Likely Responsible for Mutations in Most Cancers
A previously overlooked enzyme called APOBEC3A is linked to the most prevalent mutational signatures in cancer cell lines, a study finds.
Jul 28, 2022
Major mutation pattern in cancer occurs in bursts
News article by the Communications Team,
7 Mar 2019
New resources could help understand the origins of cancer
Researchers have created a huge resource for investigating the biological mechanisms that cause cancer. The scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators identified which patterns of DNA damage – mutational fingerprints that represent the origins of cancer – were present in over a thousand human cancer cell lines. They also revealed that a major mutation pattern found in human cancer, previously linked to a virus-fighting immune response, occurred in bursts in cancer cell lines with long periods of silence in between, but the cause of these mutational bursts remains mysterious.
Switching APOBEC mutation signatures
Darren J. Burgess
Nature Reviews Genetics volume 20, page253 (2019)
CANCER GENOMICS
Accumulating evidence from cancer sequencing studies shows that endogenous and exogenous mutagenic processes leave diverse signatures within cancer genomes. Two recent studies report substantial temporal and spatial variability in mutagenic signatures caused by APOBEC cytidine deaminases.
Dr Mia Petljak, Postdoctoral Associate at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, spoke at Mutographs 2019 about mutational signatures of APOBEC-associated (apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like) mutagenesis in human cancer. #Mutographs2019, the annual meeting of the Mutographs project, was held on 11-12 July 2019 at IARC, Lyon, France.
Find out more about IARC: www.iarc.fr