Michael Sevilla and his team publish about radiation damage to DNA

10/07/2015

Michael Sevilla and his team publish about radiation damage to DNA 

Distinguished Professor and CBR member Michael Sevilla, of the Department of Chemistry, and his team recently published a paper in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B (Volume 119, Pages 11496-11505) titled “Pi-Radical to Sigma-Radical Tautomerization in One-Electron-Oxidized 1-Methylcytosine and Its Analogs.” This work combines the experimental method of electron spin resonance spectroscopy with the computational method of density functional theory to analyze one way that radiation can damage our DNA. 

Lead author is Dr. Amitava Adhikary, a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry who won the 2007 Marie Curie Award from the Radiation Research Society. Included among the coauthors are three Oakland University undergraduate students: Casandra Bishop and Ragda Hindi both obtained a BS in Chemistry in 2014, and Tyler Weigand is currently an engineering chemistry major and a member of the Honors College. 

Sevilla’s laboratory is funded by a grant (R01CA045424) from the National Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health.