RESEARCH INTERESTS...

Purpose: This page provides a summary of my academic research interests.

Brief Summary

I completed a PhD with Noreen Murray at the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology (now ICB) at Edinburgh University looking at the DNA specificity of restriction and modification systems of bacteria. This work exploited the powerful genetics of lambda and E. coli to determine DNA specificities of novel restriction enzymes and illuminate the mechanisms of evolution and adaptation for these enzymes.

Subsequently I moved to the MRC Human Genetics Unit (and later Medical Genetics Section, Edinburgh University) with David Porteous studying gene therapy for Cystic Fibrosis. My project involved designing and developing new assays that sensitively measure gene therapy in clinical trials. From 1999-2002 I pursued a CF-trust award to explore the possibility of using DNA repair as a therapy for Cystic Fibrosis. This project was focused upon manipulating the mechanisms of DNA repair (and more specifically homologous recombination) in mammalian cells.

This work became part of the UK CF gene therapy consortium.

In 2002 I moved to the department of Genetics & Development at Columbia University (New York) to work with Rodney Rothstein's group on the mechanisms of homologous recombination. Our work focuses upon the genes and proteins that are responsible for this process and their role in determining the recombination status of different cells.

Columbia University Medical Center

Publications links to articles are provided in some cases - click on the journal title.

Thorpe, P.H. 1995. Ph.D Thesis. Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, Edinburgh University, UK. The DNA Specificity of Type I Restriction and Modification Enzymes.

Dryden, D.T.F. Cooper, L.P. Thorpe, P.H. and Byron, O. 1997. The in vitro assembly of the EcoKI type I DNA restriction/modification enzyme and its in vivo implications. Biochemistry. 36. 1065-1076.

Thorpe, P.H. Ternent, D. and Murray, N.E. 1997. The Specificity of StySKI, a type I restriction enzyme, implies a structure with rotational symmetry. Nucleic Acids Research. 25. 1694-1700.

Thorpe, P.H. and Porteous, D.J. 1999. Rapid quantitation of gene therapy specific CFTR expression using the Amplification Refractory Mutation System. Biotechniques. 27 (1);122-127.

Thorpe, P.H. Stevenson, B.J. and Porteous D.J. 2002. Functional correction of episomal mutations with short DNA fragments and RNA-DNA oligonucleotides. J. Gene Medicine 4; 195-204.

Thorpe, P. Stevenson, B.J. and Porteous D.J. 2002. Optimising gene repair strategies in cell culture. Gene Therapy 9; 700-702.

Simpson, A.J. King, J.A. Thorpe, P.H. McLachlan, G. and Sallenave, J-M. 2004. Towards gene therapy for inflammatory and infective pulmonary diseases. Current Genomics. 5; 365-383.

Thorpe, P.H. Marrero, V.A. Savitzky, M.H. Sunjevaric, I. Freeman, T.C. and Rothstein, R. 2006. Cells expressing murine RAD52 splice variants favor sister chromatid repair. Mol. Cell Biol. 26; 3752-3763.

Cagney, G. Alvaro, D. Reid, R.J. Thorpe, P.H. Rothstein, R. and Krogan, N.J. 2006. Functional genomics of the yeast DNA-damage response. Genome Biol. 7.

Thorpe, P.H. González-Barrera, S. and Rothstein, R. 2007. More is not always better: the genetic constraints of polyploidy. Trends in Genetics 6; 263-266.

Published Abstracts

Thorpe, P.H.; McLachlan, G.; Davidson-Smith, H.; Stevenson, B.J.; and Porteous, D.J. 1998. Sensitive assays to monitor the efficiency of delivery and expression of gene therapy vectors for cystic fibrosis. Pediatric Pulmonology S17; (253) p.271.

Thorpe, P.H.; Stevenson,B.J.; Gohil, A; and Porteous, D.J. 2000. Towards CFTR Gene Correction: A Comparison of two key strategies. Pediatric Pulmonology S20; (244) p.241.

Thorpe, P.H.; Stevenson, B.J.; and Porteous, D.J. 2001. Comparing two strategies for functional gene correction. Mol. Ther. 3;1143 p.S401.

Thorpe, P.H.; Stevenson, B.J.; and Porteous D.J. 2002. Analysing Mammalian Gene Repair Using GFP. Mol. Ther. 5;402 p.S132.

Disclaimer: The information provided on these pages is not guaranteed to be accurate, I would appreciate if you would e-mail me if you find any mistakes. Any views expressed are entirely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers or other Columbia University staff/students.

Last updated December 07

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