The DNA damage response (DDR) is a network of cellular pathways that sense, signal and repair DNA lesions. Defects in the DDR can result in mutations and genome instability, and can lead to diseases such as cancer. We employ a cross-disciplinary systems biology-based approach that encompasses genetics, proteomics, microscopy and bioinformatics in yeast, mouse and human/patient cells to identify the proteins that constitute DDR pathways, and study their impact on genome stability maintenance, human disease and treatment options.
News
23 January 2024
Haico van Attikum gave a public lecture "Repairing DNA damage: what does that mean for you?" at the beautiful Diligentia theater in The Hague. Thanks to the Royal Society of Physics, Diligentia.
Bottom image © 2024 Omroep West
23 January 2024
Our new paper is out in Molecular Cell! We show that loss of EXO1-dependent repair of DNA breaks by single-strand annealing (SSA) is a vulnerability of BRCA1-deficient (cancer) cells. Great work by Bert van de Kooij, Anne Schreuder and Raphael Pavani in collaboration with the labs of Edwin Cuppen, Martijn Luijsterburg, Marcel van Vugt, Andre Nussenzweig and Sylvie Noordermeer (with whom we led the project).
8 January 2024
Amber van Landschoot started as a Msc student in our lab. During her internship she will will setup new approaches for the functional analysis of spliceogenic variants in the cancer susceptibility gene CHEK2 to better understand the association between loss of CHEK2 function and cancer risk.
1 January 2024
Mandy Erkelens started as a new postdoc on a ENW-M1 funded project in our lab. She will study the mechanistic role a newly protein, ZNF384, that we found to play a role in DNA double-strand break repair by non-homologous end-joining (Singh et al., Nat. Commun., 2021)
21 December 2023
EMBO workshop
The EMBO workshop "Chromatin dynamics and nuclear organisation in genome maintenance" will take place from June 17-20, 2024, in Leiden, the Netherlands. Check our fantastic list of speakers and register before April 1, 2024 at https://meetings.embo.org/event/24-chromatin-dynamics. Speaker slots available!
11 October 2023
Postdoc position available
When breaks in our DNA are not repaired efficiently or correctly, diseases such as cancer can arise. DNA breaks can have different structures and occur in different parts of our DNA. How the DNA repair machinery deals with the structure and context of a DNA break and how this influences the repair process is largely unclear. We will use a combination of advanced cellular, genomics and biochemical analyses to study whether a newly discovered repair protein, zinc-finger 384, plays a heroic role in this. For this Dutch Research Council (NWO)-funded project, we are seeking a highly motivated postdoc.
Apply here
Closes: October 25th, 2023
1 May 2023
Fatma Özgün started as a new postdoc on a KWF-funded project in our lab. She will setup new approaches for the functional analysis of genetic variants in the cancer susceptibility gene CHEK2 to better understand the association between loss of CHEK2 function and cancer risk.
4 April 2023
We are super proud of former PhD student Rick Boonen who defended his thesis “Functional analysis of genetic variants in PALB2 and CHEK2: linking functional impact with cancer risk” with pride and conviction. Good luck with your future work at Eurofins PAMM!
28 February 2023
Happy to share our collaborative work with Sylvie Noordermeer’s lab showing that BRCA1-deficient cells depend on EXO1-mediated repair by SSA. Fantastic work by postdoc Bert van de Kooij (Van Attikum lab) and Anne Schreuder (Noordermeer lab) in collaboration with Raphael Pavani from Andre Nussenzweig’s lab and Arne van Hoeck from Edwin Cuppen’s lab.
24 February 2023
We had our first ever Van Attikum lab symposium with great presentations and vibrant discussions that gave rise to a lot of exciting new ideas! The symposium ended with delicious food and drinks in restaurant City Hall Leiden.
1 February 2023
Michael van Gerven started as a new postdoc on a KWF-funded project in our lab. He will setup new approaches to study DNA double-strand break repair by the poorly understood single-strand annealing (SSA) pathway to better understand its relevance for BRCA1-deficient cancer cells.
20 December 2022
Postdoc position available
We are looking for a highly motivated postdoc for a project financed by the KWF. You study genetic variants in the CHEK2 gene whose clinical significance in terms of breast cancer risk is unclear. The aim of this project is to develop and use a high-throughput functional assay to determine the impact of all possible missense variants in CHEK2 on CHK2 kinase activity relevant to its function as a tumor suppressor. With this information carriers of CHEK2 variants can be better informed about their risk of developing breast cancer.
Apply here
Closes: February 20th, 2023
20 December 2022
Our Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding) grant application to study the functional impact and associated breast cancer risk of genetic variants in the CHEK2 gene was funded!
9 November 2022
We are super proud of former PhD student Jenny Singh who defended her thesis “Identification and characterization of novel factors in the DNA damage response” in a very convincing manner. Good luck with your future work in Annabel Quinet’s lab!
27 October 2022
Together with Martijn Luijsterburg, John van Noort and Remus Dame we organized a very successful Dutch Chromatin meeting at the LUMC in Leiden. Thanks to all sponsors and speakers Nico Thomä, Ana Pombo, Fred van Leeuwen, Sebastian Deindl, Bas Heijmans.
3 October 2022
We just presented some of our work at the fantastic ASBMB meeting on “The interplay between epigenetic regulation and genome stability” in Seattle, USA.
15 September 2022
We have an open postdoctoral research position to study DNA repair pathway choice in BRCA1-mutated cancers. Interested in studying this process to find new therapies for these cancers? Application closed!
9 September 2022
Our new paper “Crosstalk between end-joining, single-strand annealing and homologous recombination using new multi-pathway DNA double-strand break repair reporters” is out in Nature Communications. Great work by postdoc Bert van de Kooij in collaboration with Alex Kruswick from Mike Yaffe’s lab.
8 September 2022
We are super proud of former PhD student Leonie Kollenstart who defended her thesis “Identifying and characterizing regulators of histone acylation and replication stress” with great conviction. We look forward to seeing her future work with Anja Groth!
29 July 2022
We published a review in Trends in Cancer on the functional analysis of genetic variants in the moderate cancer risk gene CHEK2 . Read about the challenges, particularly how to link functional outcomes with cancer risk.
30 June 2022
We organized a fantastic HBOC-VUS workshop with Jos Jonkers, Arne Nedergaard and Peter Bouwman on the Functional Analysis of Sequence Variants in Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Genes, in Leiden, the Netherlands. Excellent line up of speakers, great talks and discussions.
1 April 2022
We co-organized, attended and presented our work at an excellent DNA repair meeting in Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands. We look forward to the next meeting in 2026!
22 February 2022
Happy to share our review on fluorescent DSB-repair reporters, which is out now in Frontiers in Genetics. Great work by postdoc Bert van de Kooij. We hope this review will be helpful in choosing the right DSB reporter for your research!
12 January 2022
New paper from the lab out in Life Science Alliance. Chl1/DDX11 helicase controls replication fork progression by regulating dNTP pools. Great work by PhD student Sophie van der Horst and postdoc Amandine Batté and co-workers, in collaboration with the labs of Jolanda van Leeuwen and Andrei Chabes’s.
22 December 2021
Our paper in Cancer Research describing a quantitative approach for the functional analysis of genetic variants in the tumor suppressor CHEK2 is online. We identified new CHEK2 variants associated with increased cancer risk. Great work by Rick Boonen and collaborators!