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Josef Jiricny

Josef Jiricny
Josef Jiricny
Email
jiricny@imcr.uzh.ch
Affiliations
University of Zurich (UZH)
Website
www.imcr.uzh.ch
Expertise
Prof. Jiricny is Director of the Institute of Molecular Cancer Research of the University of Zurich and a Full Professor at the medical faculty of the University of Zurich. In 2001 he was elected joint member of the faculty of sciences and on 1st Oct 2003 he was elected to the independent chair of Functional Genomics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).
For the past twenty years, Dr. Jiricny has been studying the molecular mechanisms of mismatch repair. Together with his collaborators, he identified several enzymes capable of correcting G/T and G/U mismatches in the DNA of different organisms. Dr. Jiricny was also the first to identify the human mismatch binding factor hMutSα. Dr. Jiricny and his collaborators are currently focusing on the identification of new components of the mismatch repair pathway and on the reconstitution of the entire process from purified recombinant proteins. They are also studying the role(s) of the mismatch repair process in other pathways of DNA metabolism and in DNA damage signalling.
Selected references
  • Palombo, F., Gallinari, P., Iaccarino, I., Lettieri, T., Hughes, M., D'Arrigo, A., Truong, O., Hsuan, J.J. and Jiricny, J. GTBP, a 160-Kilodalton Protein Essential for Mismatch-Binding Activity in Human Cells. Science 1995 268:1912-1914
  • Kleczkowska, H.E., Marra, G., Lettieri, T. and Jiricny, J. Interaction of hMSH3 and hMSH6 with PCNA is required for mismatch correction and for co-localisation to replication foci. Genes Dev 2001 15:724-736
  • Cejka, P., Stojic, L., Mojas, N., Russell, A.M., Heinimann, K., Cannavó, E., di Pietro, M., Marra G. and Jiricny, J. Methylation-induced G2/M arrest requires a full complement of the mismatch repair protein hMLH1. EMBO J 2003 22:2245-2254
  • Stojic, L., Mojas, N., Cejka, P., di Pietro, M., Ferrari, S., Marra, G. and Jiricny, J. Mismatch repair-dependent G2 checkpoint induced by low doses of SN1 type methylating agents requires the ATR kinase. Genes Dev 2004 18:1331-1344
  • Jiricny, J. The multifaceted mismatch repair system. Nature Revs in Mol and Cell Biol 2006 7:335-346
  • Mojas, N., Lopes, M. and Jiricny, J. Mismatch repair-dependent processing of methylation damage gives rise to persistent single-stranded gaps in newly-replicated DNA. Genes Dev 2007 21:3342-3355.