Luciana Nogueira de Sousa Andrade

From DNA Repair Lab

Undergraduated in Biology at University of São Paulo. Master degree in Biophysics and Physiology and PhD in Oncology. Nowadays, I am supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from FAPESP.

Research project

Among the genetic and biochemical alterations observed in tumors cells, escape from cell death (apoptosis) are responsible in part for drug resistance in malignant neoplasias. At the molecular level, modifications in apoptotic gene expression and drug metabolism are involved in tumor cells sensibility to chemotherapeutic compounds currently used in cancer treatment. Recently, it has been shown that DNA repair genes are involved in tumor cells drug resistance. In fact, chemotherapy drugs induce DNA damage, which is responsible for the cytotoxic effect of these compounds, so it is expected that alterations in DNA repair pathways may contribute to chemorresistance in some malignant cells. In this project, we intend to investigate the involvment of DNA repair pathways in drug resistance and evaluate a possible synergism among these pathways in response to the DNA damage caused by some drugs.