Abstract: Accurate DNA replication is performed by the multi-protein replisome complex and is tightly regulated in eukaryotic cells to ensure genome stability. A major focus of our group is to elucidate how the replisome overcomes nucleoprotein complexes, which is necessary for normal replication fork progression. To gain insight into how the replisome complex deals with natural impediments in a physiologically relevant environment, we study replication in Xenopus laevis egg extracts. Using fluorescently labelled proteins, we are investigating the fate of parental histones, inactive Mcm2-7 complexes, and cohesin complexes upon replication fork collision. The ability to record molecular movies of these encounters with single-molecule sensitivity is giving us access into molecular details that are difficult to gain by ensemble methods.

Biography: Dr Hasan Yardimci obtained a BSc degree in physics from Bogazici University, Turkey, in 1999. He then joined the graduate program of Johns Hopkins University and received his PhD in soft condensed matter physics in 2006. As a postdoctoral research fellow at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2006-2008), Hasan studied the molecular mechanism of a mitotic kinesin using single molecule imaging methods. He then moved to Harvard Medical School (2008-2013) as a postdoc, where he focused on single molecule studies of eukaryotic DNA replication.

In 2013, Hasan established his own research group at Clare Hall Laboratories, Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (now part of the Francis Crick Institute). His laboratory develops and applies novel single molecule tools to study DNA replication and repair.