Lisa Lai

I have always been interested in chromosomal stability, and in particular, how deregulation of this cellular process results in disease. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania; my dissertation project focused on regulation of mitotic chromosome segregation in the budding yeast S. cerevisiae. I joined the Rabinovitch lab in January 2004 to further investigate the effects of genomic instability on aging and cancer in humans.

My current project focuses on analysis of genomic instability in Barrett's esophagus. Barrett's esophagus - a precursor to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) - oftentimes results from prolonged gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and occurs when metaplastic columnar tissue replaces the squamous epithelium. While it has been shown that specific molecular alterations - such as p16 or p53 loss of heterozygosity (LOH) - or aneuploidy are indicative of progression toward EA, less is known about how genomic instability facilitates neoplasia at each of these steps. I am using array-CGH (comparative genomic hybridization) - primarily focusing on BAC and SNP micro-arrays - to evaluate the genomic changes occurring over time in BE patients. Genotypic alterations identified by these chips are being confirmed by PCR amplification and direct sequencing. I am also working on a chromosome-specific quantitative PCR assay to evaluate genomic instability in subtelomeric regions (regions proximal to the telomere or chromosome end), which include gene-rich regions as well as repetitive elements highly prone to recombination.