During her PhD studies, Camilla Myrup Holst researched a DNA repair mechanism called base excision repair (BER). Her investigations have focused on the regulation of the mechanism in the aging brain. BER eliminates many of the DNA lesions that continuously arise in the cell and the mechanism involves the action of several enzymes. Camilla Myrup Holst studied and identified different regulatory mechanisms, which control the BER enzymes. Furthermore, she studied changes in the level of BER enzymes with age in the human brain. In addition, she examined BER capacity as a molecular marker of cognitive function in long-lived human individuals. This work contributes to our understanding of how the cell regulates its DNA repair machinery and hints to regulatory mechanisms that may contribute to changes in the ability to repair DNA with age in the brain.

The PhD study was completed at Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Friday 21 April 2023 at 13:00
Place: Building 1873, room K20, Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Universitetsbyen 81, 8000 Aarhus C
Title of PhD thesis: New Insights into the Role and Regulation of Base Excision Repair

Contact information: Camilla Myrup Holst, e-mail: camilla.myrup.holst@mbg.au.dk, tel.: +4528685266

Members of the assessment committee:
Professor David Wilson III, Biomedical Research Institute, Hasselt University, Belgium

Professor Lene Juel Rasmussen, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Associate Professor Ernst-Martin Füchtbauer (chair), Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Main supervisor: Professor Tinna Stevnsner, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Natural Sciences/GSNS, Jens Baggesens Vej 53, building 5221, 8200 Aarhus N.