Thesis title: Characterizing Excluded Strand DNA Interactions with Hexametric Helices and Determining Roles in Unwinding Mechanisms
Graduation date: July 2016
MBSB PhD advisor: Dr. Michael Trakselis (Dept. Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh)
Research Interests:
Genomic replication processes are essential across all domains of life. A required step in DNA replication is the unwinding of double-stranded DNA to provide single-stranded templates for downstream elongation by polymerases. However, the exact mechanism by which dsDNA is unwound is not clear. My current work involves studying helicases from a variety of organisms with various biophysical and biochemical techniques in order to elucidate the mechanism(s) used to unwind dsDNA.
Current location: postdoctoral researcher in the Loparo lab at Harvard University's Medical School in Boston, MA
Education:
B.S., Biology, Gwynedd-Mercy College
Ph.D., Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics, University of Pittsburgh, 2016
Publications:
- Leuba SH, Carney SM, Dahlburg EM, Eells RJ, Ghodke H, Yanamala N, Schauer G, Klein-Seetharaman J. (2014) Early integration of the individual student in academic activities: a novel classroom concept for graduate education in molecular biophysics and structural biology. BMC Biophys. 2014;7:6
- Carney SM, Trakselis MA. (2016) The excluded DNA strand is SEW important for hexameric helicase unwinding. Methods. 2016 Apr 9. pii: S1046-2023(16)30080-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2016.04.008
- Khan I, Crouch JD, Bharti SK, Sommers JA, Carney SM, Yakubovskaya E, Garcia-Diaz M, Trakselis MA, Brosh RM Jr. (2016) Biochemical Characterization of the Human Mitochondrial Replicative Twinkle Helicase: Substrate Specificity, DNA Branch-Migration, and Ability to Overcome Blockades to DNA Unwinding. J Biol Chem. 291(27):14324-39.
- Carney SM, Gomathinayagam S, Leuba SH, Trakselis MA. Bacterial DnaB helicase interacts with the excluded strand to regulate unwinding. J Biol Chem. 2017 Sep 22. pii: jbc.M117.814178. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M117.814178
