Kristin Eckert

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

500 University Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
kae4@psu.edu
717-531-4065

Research Summary

Mechanisms of human cell mutagenesis and repetitive DNA replication in relation to genome evolution.

Huck Affiliations

Bioinformatics and Genomics

Publication Tags

Dna Genome Dna Directed Dna Polymerase Neoplasms Microsatellite Repeats Rad30 Protein Human Genome Dna Replication G Quadruplexes Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen Oncogenes Genomic Instability Dna Damage Mutation Tandem Repeat Sequences Nucleotides Holoenzymes Inflammation Enzymes Carcinogenesis Cell Death Cells Cell Cycle Checkpoints Dna Sequence Incidence

Most Recent Publications

Variation in G-quadruplex sequence and topology differentially impacts human DNA polymerase fidelity

Mary Elizabeth Stein, Suzanne E. Hile, Matthias H. Weissensteiner, Marietta Lee, Sufang Zhang, Eduard Kejnovský, Iva Kejnovská, Kateryna D. Makova, Kristin A. Eckert, 2022, DNA Repair

Impact of g-quadruplexes and chronic inflammation on genome instability: Additive effects during carcinogenesis

Mary Elizabeth Stein, Kristin A. Eckert, 2021, Genes

Overexpression of oncogenic H-Ras in hTERTimmortalized and SV40-transformed human cells targets replicative and specialized DNA polymerases for depletion

Wei Chung Tsao, Raquel Buj, Katherine M. Aird, Julia M. Sidorova, Kristin A. Eckert, 2021, PLoS One

Selection and thermostability suggest G-quadruplexes are novel functional elements of the human genome

Wilfried M. Guiblet, Michael DeGiorgio, Michael , Xiaoheng Cheng, Francesca Chiaromonte, Kristin A. Eckert, Yi Fei Huang, Kateryna D. Makova, 2021, Genome Research on p. 1136-1149

Non-B DNA: A major contributor to small-and large-scale variation in nucleotide substitution frequencies across the genome

Wilfried Guiblet, Marzia Cremona, Robert Harris, Di Chen, Kristin A. Eckert, Francesca Chiaromonte, Yi Fei Huang, Kateryna D. Makova, 2021, Nucleic Acids Research on p. 1497--1516

Sequence and Nuclease Requirements for Breakage and Healing of a Structure-Forming (AT)n Sequence within Fragile Site FRA16D

Simran Kaushal, Charles E. Wollmuth, Kohal Das, Suzanne E. Hile, Samantha B. Regan, Ryan P. Barnes, Alice Haouzi, Soo Mi Lee, Nealia C.M. House, Michael Guyumdzhyan, Kristin A. Eckert, Catherine H. Freudenreich, 2019, Cell Reports on p. 1151-1164.e5

DNA polymerases as chemotherapy targets: Promise and challenges

Kristin A. Eckert, Ryan P. Barnes, 2019, Oncotarget on p. 620-621

DNA polymerase eta prevents tumor cell-cycle arrest and cell death during recovery from replication stress

Ryan P. Barnes, Wei Chung Tsao, George Lucian Moldovan, Kristin A. Eckert, 2018, Cancer Research on p. 6549-6560

Long-read sequencing technology indicates genome-wide effects of non-B DNA on polymerization speed and error rate

Wilfried M. Guiblet, Marzia A. Cremona, Monika Cechova, Robert S. Harris, Iva Kejnovská, Eduard Kejnovsky, Kristin Eckert, Francesca Chiaromonte, Kateryna D. Makova, 2018, Genome Research on p. 1767-1778

Detours to replication: Functions of specialized DNA polymerases during oncogene-induced replication stress

Wei Chung Tsao, Kristin A. Eckert, 2018, International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Most-Cited Papers

DNA synthesis by pol η promotes fragile site stability by preventing under-replicated DNA in mitosis

Valérie Bergoglio, Anne Sophie Boyer, Erin Walsh, Valeria Naim, Gaëlle Legube, Marietta Y.W.T. Lee, Laurie Rey, Filippo Rosselli, Christophe Cazaux, Kristin A. Eckert, Jean Sébastien Hoffmann, 2013, Journal of Cell Biology on p. 395-408

Interplay between DNA repair and inflammation, and the link to cancer

Dawit Kidane, Wook Jin Chae, Jennifer Czochor, Kristin A. Eckert, Peter M. Glazer, Alfred L.M. Bothwell, Joann B. Sweasy, 2014, Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology on p. 116-139

Human PrimPol is a highly error-prone polymerase regulated by single-stranded DNA binding proteins

Thomas A. Guilliam, Stanislaw K. Jozwiakowski, Aaron Ehlinger, Ryan P. Barnes, Sean G. Rudd, Laura J. Bailey, J. Mark Skehel, Kristin A. Eckert, Walter J. Chazin, Aidan J. Doherty, 2015, Nucleic Acids Research on p. 1056-1068

Accurate typing of short tandem repeats from genome-wide sequencing data and its applications

Arkarachai Fungtammasan, Guruprasad Ananda, Suzanne E. Hile, Marcia Shu Wei Su, Chen Sun, Robert Harris, Paul Medvedev, Kristin Eckert, Kateryna D. Makova, 2015, Genome Research on p. 736-749

Mechanism of replicative DNA polymerase delta pausing and a potential role for DNA polymerase kappa in common fragile site replication

Erin Walsh, Xiaoxiao Wang, Marietta Y. Lee, Kristin A. Eckert, 2013, Journal of Molecular Biology on p. 232-243

Distinct mutational behaviors differentiate short tandem repeats from micro satellites in the human genome

Guruprasad Ananda, Erin Walsh, Kimberly D. Jacob, Maria Krasilnikova, Kristin A. Eckert, Francesca Chiaromonte, Kateryna D. Makova, 2013, Genome Biology and Evolution on p. 606-620

Genome-wide Identification of Structure-Forming Repeats as Principal Sites of Fork Collapse upon ATR Inhibition

Nishita Shastri, Yu Chen Tsai, Suzanne Hile, Deondre Jordan, Barrett Powell, Jessica Chen, Dillon Maloney, Marei Dose, Yancy Lo, Theonie Anastassiadis, Osvaldo Rivera, Taehyong Kim, Sharvin Shah, Piyush Borole, Kanika Asija, Xiang Wang, Kevin D. Smith, Darren Finn, Jonathan Schug, Rafael Casellas, Liliya A. Yatsunyk, Kristin A. Eckert, Eric J. Brown, 2018, Molecular Cell on p. 222-238.e11

DNA polymerases eta and kappa exchange with the polymerase delta holoenzyme to complete common fragile site synthesis

Ryan P. Barnes, Suzanne E. Hile, Marietta Y. Lee, Kristin A. Eckert, 2017, DNA Repair on p. 1-11

Non-B DNA: A major contributor to small-and large-scale variation in nucleotide substitution frequencies across the genome

Wilfried Guiblet, Marzia Cremona, Robert Harris, Di Chen, Kristin A. Eckert, Francesca Chiaromonte, Yi Fei Huang, Kateryna D. Makova, 2021, Nucleic Acids Research on p. 1497--1516

Tumor-specific microsatellite instability: Do distinct mechanisms underlie the MSI-L and EMAST phenotypes?

Suzanne E. Hile, Samion Shabashev, Kristin A. Eckert, 2013, Mutation Research - Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis on p. 67-77

News Articles Featuring Kristin Eckert

Feb 04, 2021

Unusual DNA folding increases the rates of mutations

DNA sequences that can fold into shapes other than the classic double helix tend to have higher mutation rates than other regions in the human genome. New research by a team of Penn State scientists shows that the elevated mutation rate in these sequences plays a major role in determining regional variation in mutation rates across the genome.

Full Article