This project will directly visualize how human cells copy both DNA and its epigenetic “on/off” instructions using advanced imaging methods. Visualizing and defining this process will expose replication-linked vulnerabilities in cancer cells and guide the development of targeted therapies.
Dr. Farnung is an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in the Department of Cell Biology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, and a HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar (Howard Hughes Medical Institute). Lucas completed his doctoral thesis at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany) and the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Germany) and worked as a postdoctoral fellow and project leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry to elucidate molecular mechanisms of chromatin transcription. He joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 2021 to investigate nucleic acid-transacting molecular machines in the cell’s nucleus. Farnung is a recipient of the Karl-Lohmann-Price of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and The Rita Allen Foundation’s 2023 Milton E Cassel Scholar.