Acting Co-Director, John B. Little Center for Radiation Sciences
Environmental Health
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Research Interests
Why can some people tolerate exposure to DNA damaging agents such as radiation, sunlight, reactive oxygen species and tobacco smoke, while others develop disease? Why do some cancers respond to radiation and chemotherapy, while others do not? Research in the Nagel lab is focused on finding answers to these questions by studying DNA repair. We are using novel multiplex, cell-based DNA repair assays (FM-HCR) together with biochemical and biophysical approaches to understand DNA repair at the molecular, cellular and population levels, with the long-term goal of advancing personalized prevention and treatment of disease.
One area of research is focused on defining the structural and mechanistic biology of the molecular machines that repair DNA damage. This project is aimed at understanding how mutations affect the function of DNA repair complexes, and identifying cancer-specific therapeutic targets.
A second major initiative is to measure DNA repair capacity in cancer cells and generate mathematical models that predict whether cancer cells will be sensitive to killing with specific DNA damaging agents. The goal of this project is to identify personalized cancer therapy strategies.
A third major interest involves measuring inter-individual differences in DNA repair capacity in non-cancerous cells. The goal of this work is to identify functional biomarkers that can be used for individualized predictions regarding disease risk and sensitivity to exposure to radiation and other DNA damaging agents.
Singh R, Yu S, Osman M, Inde Z, Fraser C, Cleveland AH, Almanzar N, Lim CB, Joshi GN, Spetz J, Qin X, Toprani SM, Nagel Z, Hocking MC, Cormack RA, Yock TI, Miller JW, Yuan ZM, Gershon T, Sarosiek KA.
Cancer Res. 2023 Oct 13. 83(20):3442-3461. PMID: 37470810
Brown N, Rocchi P, Carmès L, Guthier R, Iyer M, Seban L, Morris T, Bennett S, Lavelle M, Penailillo J, Carrasco R, Williams C, Huynh E, Han Z, Kaza E, Doussineau T, Toprani SM, Qin X, Nagel ZD, Sarosiek KA, Hagège A, Dufort S, Bort G, Lux F, Tillement O, Berbeco R.
Theranostics. 2023. 13(14):4711-4729. PMID: 37771768
Lu H, Zhang Q, Laverty DJ, Puncheon AC, Augustine MM, Williams GJ, Nagel ZD, Chen BPC, Davis AJ.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 07 21. 51(13):6770-6783. PMID: 37309889
Lu H, Zhang Q, Laverty DJ, Puncheon AC, Williams GJ, Nagel ZD, Chen BP, Davis AJ.
bioRxiv. 2023 Feb 02. PMID: 36778257
Scheibler C, Toprani SM, Mordukhovich I, Schaefer M, Staffa S, Nagel ZD, McNeely E.
Front Public Health. 2022. 10:947068. PMID: 36483259
Blee AM, Li B, Pecen T, Meiler J, Nagel ZD, Capra JA, Chazin WJ.
Cancer Res. 2022 08 03. 82(15):2704-2715. PMID: 35687855
Cheong A, Nagel ZD.
Front Immunol. 2022. 13:899574. PMID: 35935942
Meas R, Nititham J, Taylor KE, Maher S, Clairmont K, Carufe KEW, Kashgarian M, Nottoli T, Cheong A, Nagel ZD, Gaffney PM, Criswell LA, Sweasy JB.
ACR Open Rheumatol. 2022 Sep. 4(9):760-770. PMID: 35708944
Koster S, Gurumurthy RK, Kumar N, Prakash PG, Dhanraj J, Bayer S, Berger H, Kurian SM, Drabkina M, Mollenkopf HJ, Goosmann C, Brinkmann V, Nagel Z, Mangler M, Meyer TF, Chumduri C.
Nat Commun. 2022 02 24. 13(1):1030. PMID: 35210413
Bitounis D, Huang Q, Toprani SM, Setyawati MI, Oliveira N, Wu Z, Tay CY, Ng KW, Nagel ZD, Demokritou P.
NanoImpact. 2022 01. 25:100379. PMID: 35559885
Experts discussed some of the latest research on Alzheimer’s causes and potential treatments at the the 25th annual John B. Little Symposium.
A group of scientists from across the U.S. took a deep dive into the foundations of environmental justice research during a new two-day intensive course.
