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E-mail
rsiam@aucegypt.edu

Phone
+20.2.2797.5366

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Biology

Science and Technology Research Center

Rania Siam

Assistant Professor
Faculty at the Science and Technology Research Center

Research Interests

The link between emerging infectious disease and tumors is an important hallmark in science linking two distinct and serious medical problems. Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death in developing countries, while cancer is the second leading cause of death in most developed countries. We are interested in identifying regional specific infectious agents contributing to high incidence of cancer in the region.
Birth defects or cancers are often the result of aberrancies in recombination through the production of chromosomal losses and rearrangements. A well suited organism for the study of such defects is Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We are utilizing a unique experimental approach in S. pombe that induces specific chromosomal rearrangements. Characterizing the cell cycle defect in such mutants will permit the representation of spontaneous genome rearrangements in eukaryotic cells for our molecular understanding of mechanisms of genomic instability and cancer.

Publications

Siam, R. and Marczynski, G.T. (2000). ‘Cell cycle regulator phosphorylation stimulates two distinct modes of binding at a chromosome replication origin’. The EMBO Journal Vol. 19, 1138-1147.

Brassinga, A.K.C., Siam , R. and Marczynski G.T. (2001). ‘Conserved gene cluster at replication origins of Caulobacter crescentus and Rickettsia prowazekii’. Journal of Bacteriology Vol. 183, 1824-1829.

Brassinga, A.K.C., Siam , R., McSween, W., Winkler, H., and Woods, W., and Marczynski G.T. (2002). ‘Conserved response regulator CtrA and IHF binding sites in the a -proteobacteria Caulobacter crescentus and Rickettsia prowazekii chromosomal replication origins.’ Journal of Bacteriology Vol. 184, 5789-5799.

Siam, R. and Marczynski, G.T. (2003). ‘ Glutamate at the phosphorylation site of response regulator CtrA provides essential activites without increasing DNA binding’. Nucleic Acids Research Vol. 31, 1775-1779.

Siam, R. Brassinga, A.K.C. and Marczynski G.T. (2003). ‘A dual binding site for integration host factor and the response regulator CtrA inside the Caulobacter crescentus replication origin’, Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 185, 5563-5572.

Siam, R. , Dolan, W.P. and Forsburg, S.L. (2003) ' Choosing and using S. pombe plasmids'. Methods Vol. 33, 189-98.