MSL Faculty Candidate Seminar: Dr. Elena Kuzmin

The Michael Smith Laboratories presents a faculty candidate seminar:

Dr. Elena Kuzmin 
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Biochemistry
the Goodman Cancer Research Centre
McGill University

Date: Wednesday, January 22^nd 
Time: 9:00 AM 
Location: MSL Auditorium (MSL 102) – 2185 East Mall

Title: Mapping complex genetic interaction networks in yeast and human cells

Abstract: Whole genome sequencing projects have revealed the prevalence of sequence variants and copy number variants in human population. Since multiple modifiers often act to modulate phenotypic variation in natural populations and impact disease onset and progression, it is important to study complex genetic interactions. We used the budding yeast to systematically map trigenic interactions using Synthetic Genetic Array Analysis technique. We explored the prevalence and properties of trigenic interactions showing that trigenic interactions have significant potential to impact the genotype-to-phenotype relationship, speciation and genome size, as well as, to reveal the evolutionary trajectories of duplicated genes. We have also applied the principles of complex genetic interactions to gain insight into the onset and progression of triple negative breast cancer, a type of cancer with poor outcome and many large copy number variants. To this end we have been studying the evolution of large chromosomal deletions, which contain multiple genes, using a combination of genetic screens and bulk and single-cell DNA- and RNA-sequencing technologies.