Lukas Tamayo Research Group

Research in a Nutshell

In my career, I have shown how the morphogen Sonic hedgehog causes endogenous DNA replication stress in neural progenitor cells, leading to pediatric brain cancer-initiating mutations, a case of cell identity change to malignancy in the organism. I subsequently took inspiration from Mendelian disorders of severe growth restriction and microcephaly that directly link DNA replication to organism and brain growth and development.

We investigate the regulation of DNA replication in cells, how the DNA replication machinery deals with chromatin and ultimately aim to uncover new roles of DNA replication in brain development. We study the roles of the replisome, from subcellular mechanism (replication, chromatin organization, gene expression) to growth and morphogenesis. Extending to other cell cycle events such as G1 regulation, our work will inform the basic mechanisms underlying human developmental disorders such as microcephaly, autism, and paediatric brain cancer.

• Professor Wendy Bickmore, The University of Edinburgh
• Professor Masato Kanemaki, National Institute of Genetics (Japan)
• Professor Johannes Walter. Blavatnik Institute, Harvard University and HHMI
• Professor Miguel Manzanares, Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBM), CSIC-UAM)

• Medical Research Council, UKRI