merrikh

Dr. Merrikh performed her graduate studies at Brandeis University, in the laboratory of Dr. Susan Lovett. Her doctoral work focused on DNA damage response pathways in Escherichia coli. She was a NIH postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Alan Grossman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her postdoctoral work focused on regulation of replication initiation and replication-transcription conflicts in Bacillus subtilis.

Accurate, complete and timely replication of the genome is essential for production of viable progeny. However, obstacles or roadblocks such as breaks in the DNA backbone, DNA binding proteins, or complex secondary structures in the DNA sequence can disrupt replication. Failure to avoid or resolve these conflicts can result in mutagenesis and genomic instability. Cells use several strategies to ensure that replication is not permanently disrupted and that the genome is preserved.

The overall goal of the Merrikh lab is to identify and understand the mechanisms that are essential for both avoidance and resolution of replication conflicts. Replication conflicts occur in all life forms and the basic strategies used by cells to deal with these problems may be conserved across species. The lab employs molecular, genetic, biochemical, and cell biological approaches in the model system Bacillus subtilis (a Gram-positive bacterium) to understand how cells deal with obstacles encountered by replication.