Name: Dr. James Dewar

Position: Assistant Professor

Research Description:

The primary tool used by the Dewar lab is cell extracts, which we derive from eggs of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. These ‘egg extracts’ contain sufficient quantities of cellular proteins to support multiple embryonic cell cycles, even in the absence of translation. Therefore, egg extracts allow us to stimulate chromosome duplication on both full length chromosomes but also customizable plasmid DNAs. To study these processes in unprecedented detail we exploit a plasmid DNA template that contains a reversible replication barrier. This allows us to halt replisomes at a defined location, then synchronously restart them and monitor their progression and composition. This approach recently led to the first biochemical model for replication termination (Dewar et al, 2015, Nature; Dewar et al, 2017, Genes Dev) and also supported studies of DNA repair (Duxin et al, 2014, Cell; Zhang et al, 2015, NSMB). We are currently using this approach to explore replication termination and develop biochemical sytems to study telomere replication.

Lab Memberships

Dewar Lab (Principal Investigator/Director)

Contact Information

Address:
Dept. Biochemistry
Vanderbilt University
Nashvile, TN
USA

Web Page: https://lab.vanderbilt.edu/dewar-lab/