UTMThe University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center · Microbiology & Immunology
Tainer Lab
John A. Tainer · Houston, Texas
Research Focus
Dr. John A. Tainer's lab at the University of Texas MD Anderson focuses on understanding how DNA repair mechanisms work in cancer cells. They study the response of cancer cells to DNA damage and how different DNA repair pathways are activated during this process. Their work combines innovative technologies and data analysis to uncover the complex interactions between DNA repair, mitochondrial function, and cancer biology, ultimately aiming to improve cancer therapies and patient outcomes.
DNA repaircancer therapygenomic instabilityDNA damagemitochondrial responseRNA damageprecision oncologycomplex datasynthetic lethalitybioinformatics
Research Aims
5AIM 01Investigate how RNA alkylation affects cancer cell dynamics.
AIM 02Explore the choice of DNA repair pathways at replication fork and double-strand breaks.
AIM 03Understand mitochondrial responses to DNA damage and NADH fluctuation.
AIM 04Develop innovative therapeutic strategies targeting DNA repair complexes.
AIM 05Analyze patient data to test the relevance of experimental findings in clinical settings.
Skills the Lab Values
time-resolved X-ray scatteringatomic structure analysiswhole genome sequencingmolecular modelingdata integration techniquescell culture techniquescancer cell biologyProtein structure prediction with AlphaFoldkinetics analysisdynamic conformational mapping
Output against the department
Publications805top 2% of dept.9th of 486
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations56ktop 3% of dept.16th of 486
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.