Welcome to the Moldovan Lab

George-Lucian Moldovan, PhD

Professor and Vice Chair for Research

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine

500 University Drive, Room C5758A

Hershey, PA 17033, USA

Phone Office: 717-531-3610

Phone Lab: 717-531-0003 ext 289200

Fax:     717-531-7072

Email: Click Here to Send Email

Twitter: @MoldovanLab

 

The Moldovan laboratory employs a combination of cellular, molecular, genetic, genome editing, and functional genomics methods, to investigate genome stability processes and how their dysregulation promotes carcinogenesis.

In particular, we aim to understand:

• the molecular machineries involved in maintaining genomic integrity during DNA replication

• the mechanisms of repair of DNA damage induced by radiation, chemotherapy, and environmental agents

• the impact of individual tumor genetic make-up on the response to cancer therapy.

Our vision is to provide novel drug targets for cancer prevention and personalized cancer treatment.

 

About Dr. Moldovan

Research

Publications

People

 

Lab news

• Check out our 2024 papers:
  • • Nusawardhana, Pale et al -USP1-dependent nucleolytic expansion of PRIMPOL-generated nascent DNA strand discontinuities during replication stress. Nucleic Acids Research
    • Khatib, Dhoonmoon et al -PARP10 promotes the repair of nascent strand DNA gaps through RAD18 mediated translesion synthesis. Nature Communications
    • Pale et al -CRISPR knockout genome-wide screens identify HELQ and RAD52 as regulators of the repair of chemotherapy-induced single stranded DNA gaps. Nucleic Acids Research
    • Hale and Moldovan -Novel insights into the role of bisphenol A (BPA) in genomic instability (Review). NAR Cancer
    • Straka at al -CAF-1 promotes efficient PrimPol recruitment to nascent DNA for single stranded DNA gap formation. Nucleic Acids Research
    • Dhoonmoon et al -coming soon

 

• October 2024: We said goodbye to Maria, our visiting student from Spain.

• October 2024: We attended the Penn State Cancer Research Day at Penn State main campus, State College, PA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• September 2024: Jude Khatib successfully defended her PhD thesis on 9/20/2024. Congratulations Dr. Khatib for an outstanding job!

 

 

• September 2024: We said goodbye to Ashna after five tremendous years with us.

 

 

• July 2024: End of Summer lunch with our summer trainees.

 

• May 2024: Celebrating Lindsey Pale as she transitions into her next career step.

 

 

 

• May 2024: We attended our Departmental Annual Retreat. Ana Hale and Jude Khatib and Ashna Dhoonmoon gave oral presentations and Jude Khatib won the best poster award. Congratulations! 

• May 2024: Lindsey Pale successfully defended her PhD thesis on 5/02/2024. Congratulations Dr. Pale for an outstanding job!

  

 

 

 

• March 2024: Lexi, Lindsey, Ana and Jude attended the Gordon Research Conference on DNA Damage, Mutations and Cancer in Ventura, CA. Lindsey was Co-Chair of the GRS Symposium for trainees.

 

 

 

• January 2024: Celebrating the start of 2024 with all our rotation students.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Check out our 2023 papers:
  • Hale, Dhoonmoon et al -Multi-step processing of replication stress-derived nascent strand DNA gaps by MRE11 and EXO1 nucleases. Nature Communications
  • Khatib, Nicolae and Moldovan. Role of Translesion DNA Synthesis in the metabolism of replication-associated nascent strand gaps (Invited Review). Journal of Molecular Biology
  • Wang et al, Arginine-deprivation confers resistance to genotoxicity by inhibiting histone H4 translation and promoting PCNA polyubiquitination. Cell Reports

 

• August 2023: lab lunch to celebrate our summer PROMISE undergraduates Grace Huang and Jonathan Jean Charles. We wish them all the best!

 

• July 2023: The lab attended the Department of Biochemistry annual retreat.
  • Lindsey Jackson and Jude Khatib had oral presentations.
  • Lindsey Jackson was awarded the Charles W. Hill Graduate Excellence Award from the Department of Biochemistry. Congratulations Lindsey!
  • Anastasia Hale won the Best Poster Award. Congratulations Ana!
  • We were joined by our two PROMISE summer undergrads: Jonathan Jean Charles and Grace Huang.

 

 

• Dr. Ashna Dhoonmoon and Dr. Tanay Thakar were hooded and received their doctoral degrees at the Penn State College of Medicine Commencement ceremony on May 13th, 2023. Congratulations and all the best in your future careers!
  • Ashna Dhoonmoon received the Dean’s Award for Scholarly Achievement and was featured here.
  • Tanay Thakar received the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Award.

 

• Check out our 2022 papers:
  • Thakar et al, Lagging strand gap suppression connects BRCA-mediated fork protection to nucleosome assembly by ensuring PCNA-dependent CAF-1 recycling. Nature Communications
  • Dhoonmoon et al, The KU-PARP14 axis differentially regulates DNA resection at stalled replication forks by MRE11 and EXO1. Nature Communications
  • Schleicher et al, The TIP60-ATM axis regulates replication fork stability in BRCA-deficient cells. Oncogenesis
  • Khatib, Schleicher et al, Complementary CRISPR genome-wide genetic screens in PARP10-knockout and overexpressing cells identify synthetic interactions for PARP10-mediated cellular survival. Oncotarget\
  • Jackson and Moldovan, Mechanisms of PARP inhibitor resistance and their implications for cancer treatment (Review). NAR Cancer

 

• Our annual lab outing (October 2022).

 

• Successful defense of her PhD thesis by Ashna Dhoonmoon on October 10, 2022. Congratulations Dr. Dhoonmoon for an outstanding job!

 

 

• July 2022: Lindsey Jackson was awarded an F31 graduate student fellowship by the National Cancer Institute to investigate chemotherapy resistance in BRCA-mutant tumors, a collaborative project with Dr. Deb Kelly’s  lab. Congratulations Lindsey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• June 2022: We attended the Department of Biochemistry annual retreat.
  • Lindsey Jackson won the Best Poster Award. Congratulations Lindsey!
  • Ashna Dhoonmoon had an oral presentation
  • We welcomed two new graduate students to the lab: Ana Hale (MD/PhD student) and Lexi Nusawardhana (PhD student)

 

• June 2022: Our lab attended the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Genome Stability. Emily Scheleicher, Ashna Dhoonmoon, Lindsey Jackson and Jude Khatib had poster presentations

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• May 2022: We said goodbye to two former graduate students in the lab: Kristen Clements, MD, PhD who is starting a residency in internal medicine at University of Rochester, and Tanay Thakar, PhD who is starting his postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Alberto Ciccia at Columbia University. So happy for their achievements, and wishing them all the best in their future endeavors!

• Dr. Kristen Clements and Dr. Emily Schleicher were hooded and received their doctoral degrees at the Penn State College of Medicine Commencement ceremony on May 15th, 2022. Congratulations and all the best in your future careers!
  • Emily Schleicher received the Dean’s Award for Scholarly Achievement
  • Kristen Clements received the Satish Shah Oncology Medical Student Scholarship
    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Tanay Thakar successfully defended his PhD thesis on May 11th, 2022. Congratulations Dr. Thakar, and all the best in the future! Tanay is on his way to a postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Alberto Ciccia at Columbia University.

 

• We’ve had a busy week attending the 2022 Gordon Research Seminar/Gordon Research Conference on DNA Damage, Mutations and Cancer in Ventura, CA, March 5-11, 2022. Some highlights:
  • Emily Schleicher was the Chair of the GRS meeting, and was recognized with an award for the awesome job she did with organizing the meeting. Congratulations Emily!
  • Lindsey Jackson was selected as Chair of the future 2024 GRS meeting on DNA Damage, Mutations and Cancer in Ventura, CA. Congratulations Lindsey!
  • Lindsey also received the Best Poster Award!
  • Ashna Dhoonmoon was awarded a Graduate Student Travel Award to attend this GRS/GRC meeting. Congratulations Ashna!
  • Ashna had an oral presentation and Lindsey presented a poster at the GRS.
  • Lucian had an invited oral presentation, while Emily, Ashna and Lindsey presented posters at the GRC.

 

• Lindsey Jackson was awarded the Best Poster Award at the Penn State College of Medicine 2022 Graduate Student Research Forum. Congratulations Lindsey!

 

• Emily Schleicher successfully defended her PhD thesis on February 23rd, 2022. Congratulations Dr. Schleicher!

 

• Check out our 2021 publications:
  • Thakar et al -Lagging strand gap suppression connects BRCA-mediated fork protection to nucleosome assembly by ensuring PCNA-dependent CAF-1 recycling. bioRxiv
  • Jackson, Dhoonmoon et al – Loss of MED12 activates the TGFbeta pathway to promote chemoresistance and replication fork stability in BRCA-deficient cells. Nucleic Acids Research
  • Schleicher and Moldovan -CRISPR screens guide the way for PARP and ATR inhibitor biomarker discovery. FEBS Journal
  • Datta et al -WRN helicase safeguards deprotected replication forks in BRCA2-mutated cancer cells. Nature Communications
  • Thakar and Moldovan -The emerging determinants of replication fork stability (Review). Nucleic Acids Research
  • O’Connor et al -PARP14 regulates cyclin D1 expression to promote cell-cycle progression. Oncogene
  • Luscher et al – ADP-ribosyltransferases, an update on function and nomenclature (Review).  FEBS Journal

 

• 2021 Graduate Program Awards: Congratulations Emily, Ashna and Tanay!
  • Emily Schleicher was awarded the Charles W. Hill Graduate Excellence Award from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the Graduate Alumni Society Award.
  • Ashna Dhoonmoon was awarded the Graduate Alumni Endowed Scholarship and the Graduate Alumni Society Award.
  • Tanay Thakar was awarded the the Graduate Alumni Society Award.

 

• Our annual outing (July 2021). We welcomed two new graduate students to the lab: Jude Khatib and Josh Straka. We were joined by our summer students: Paola Garcia Gonzalez, Kady Dennis, and Ana Hale.

 

• We were awarded the Outstanding Research Publication Award for Clements et al and Thakar et al at the 2021 Research Recognition Awards. Congrats Kristen and Tanay!

 

• Our work was featured on Penn State News!

 

• Michael O’Connor successfully defended his PhD thesis on January 28th, 2021. Congratulations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Check out our 2020 publications:
  • Thakar et al -Ubiquitinated-PCNA protects replication forks from DNA2-mediated degradation by regulating Okazaki fragment maturation and chromatin assembly. Nature Communications
  • Dhoonmoon et al – Genome-wide CRISPR synthetic lethality screen identifies a role for the ADP-ribosyltransferase PARP14 in replication fork dynamics controlled by ATR.  Nucleic Acids Research
  • Schleicher et al – Dual genome-wide CRISPR knockout and CRISPR activation screens identify common mechanisms that regulate the resistance to multiple ATR inhibitors. PLoS Genetics
  • Clements et al – Identification of regulators of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor response through complementary CRISPR knockout and activation screens. Nature Communications

 

• Kristen Clements, MD/PhD student, successfully defended her PhD thesis on January 30, 2020.  Congratulations Kristen!

 

 

 

 

• Thank you St. Baldrick’s Foundation for supporting our work for the past five years! Our award was highlighted in the foundation’s 2019 Grants Announcement and on the PennStateHealth News portal.

 

• Congratulations to Emily Schleicher, who was awarded an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship by the National Cancer Institute!

 

• Our annual outing at Troegs Brewery and Hershey’s Chocolate World (June 2019). We welcomed Ashna Dhoonmoon, who joined the lab as graduate student.

 

• Two new papers from our lab (May 2019)
  • PARI (PARPBP) suppresses replication stress-induced myeloid differentiation in leukemia cells. Oncogene
  • Heterozygous de novo RNF13 gain-of-function variant is associated with congenital epileptic encephalopathy, cortical blindness, bilateral hearing loss and failure to thrive
. American Journal of Human Genetics

 

• Our annual outing at Troegs Brewery and Hershey’s Chocolate World (August 2018).

 

 

• Three new papers from our lab (June 2018)
  • NFkB regulates p21 expression and controls DNA damage-induced leukemic differentiation. Oncogene
  • Loss of E2F7 confers resistance to poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in BRCA2 deficient cells
. Nucleic Acids Research
  • PARP10 promotes cellular proliferation and tumorigenesis by alleviating replication stress. Nucleic Acids Research

 

• Our collaborative work with Dr. Orly Elpeleg (Hadassah Medical Center Jerusalem) describes the biological basis of a severe neurodegenerative disorder in children. Edvardson, Nicolae et al, Am J Human Genetics (August 2017). Highlighted in ScienceDaily.

 

• Our annual outing at Troegs Brewery and Hershey’s Chocolate World (July 2017). We welcomed Emily Schleicher, who joined the lab as graduate student.

 

• Adri Galvan, medical student in the lab, was selected for the HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program, and will spend the next year (2017-2018) doing research in Dr. Kevan Shokat‘s lab at UCSF. Congratulations Adri!

 

• Our new review was published in Molecular Cell: Forging Ahead through Darkness: PCNA, Still the Principal Conductor at the Replication Fork
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Congratulations Dr. Choe! Kat successfully defended her thesis on September 22, 2016. Kat is now a postdoc in the Chowdhury lab at Harvard Medical School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Dr. Moldovan received the Dean’s Junior Faculty Research Award on May 12, 2015