Rafael Contreras-Galindo

Human-specific remodeling of an endogenous retrovirus shapes structural diversity at acrocentric nucleolar organizer regions

The paper reconstructs the evolution of a human-specific endogenous retrovirus, K111, showing its role in shaping structural diversity at acrocentric nucleolar organizer regions through parental transmission and remodeling.

Centromeric α-satellite DNA is a hotspot of genotoxic damage, incomplete repair, and cytoplasmic mislocalization

The paper shows that centromeric α-satellite DNA is prone to genotoxic damage, incomplete repair, and cytoplasmic mislocalization, leading to chromosome instability and chromatin antigen exposure.

Chromatin regulator HELLS mediates SSB repair and responses to DNA alkylation damage.

This study identifies HELLS as a regulator of SSB repair and DNA alkylation damage response, showing its synthetic lethality with HRD in cancer.

Bleomycin induces active-centromere damage and cytoplasmic mislocalization of centromeric chromatin in fibroblasts

This study shows bleomycin causes centromere damage and chromatin mislocalization in fibroblasts, linking it to systemic sclerosis features.

Fyn-mediated phosphorylation of Menin disrupts telomere maintenance in stem cells

This study shows that Fyn-mediated phosphorylation of Menin disrupts telomere maintenance in stem cells by altering Menin's interaction with telomerase components.

The Genomic Landscape of Centromeres in Cancers

The paper quantifies centromere sequence heterogeneity in cancer using targeted PCR, identifies reductions in centromeric markers, and detects gene conversion events in pericentromeric regions.