Natalie Saini, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Programs: Cellular Injury, End Organ Disease

 

 

Research Interests:

Dr. Saini received her PhD in Genetics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Following postdoctoral work at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Durham, NC, she joined the MUSC faculty in 2020.

The overall research goal of Dr. Saini’s lab is to determine the impacts of environmental and endogenous sources of DNA damage on genome integrity and cancer risk. These efforts, begun during her postdoctoral work, encompass both yeast genetic assays and bioinformatic analyses of human tumor cells. The combined investigations have begun to yield mutational signatures associated with exposure to specific DNA damaging agents, i.e., alkylating agents and oxidative damage.

Current projects in Dr. Saini’s lab are focused on the identification and development of a mutational signature resulting from acetaldehyde exposure. This projects involves the use of both bioinformatic tools detecting such a signature in both yeast models and in human cancers, and the testing of the validity of the signature in cancer cell lines engineered to enhance the mutagenic effects of acetaldehyde exposure.

Saini Lab Webpage

Publications:

PubMed Collection