Rachel D. Kelly

The paper shows Ku suppresses RNA-mediated innate immune responses in human cells, enabling primate-specific Alu element expansion by reducing dsRNA-induced inflammation.

This study establishes a conditional Ku70 knockout system in human cells to investigate the causes of Ku essentiality, finding that loss of Ku affects multiple cellular processes beyond DNA repair and telomere maintenance.

The paper assesses the utility of the Mouse Diversity Genotyping Array (MDGA) for cross-species genomic studies in non-model rodents, finding it effective for closely related species but underestimating diversity in more distant ones.