PRIMARY FACULTY

Michael Daly, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Pathology
 
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda MD 20814
Office: 301-295-3750
Fax: 301-295-1996
mdaly@usuhs.mil

After completing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in genetics from the University of London (1984-1988) and a post-doctoral fellowship (1988-1992) at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, M. Daly joined the Department of Pathology at USUHS in 1992. Since then, the sole focus of his research has been the genetic development of the extremely radiation resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. Early on, it was evident that D. radiodurans is uniquely suited to the analysis of DNA repair and the goal of his work was to construct a study-system worthy of serious investment by the scientific community. Today, D. radiodurans is one of the dominant organisms investigated by the Department of Energy (DOE), with several programs dedicated to its study. It is also a regular topic of discussion in mainstream academics, biotechnology, on the Internet, and in the news media where Deinococcus has been covered by ABC Nightline, CNN, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, and others. This prominence rose to the cover story of the millennium issue of U.S. News and World Report in 2000.

D. radiodurans maintains 4-8 haploid copies of its genome per cell (16-32 genomes/ tetracoccus), and the repair of irradiation-induced DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) is known to be mediated by recA-independent (single-stranded annealing) and recA-dependent homologous recombination, but no error-prone SOS response is observed. Yet, the identity of the genetic systems underlying those repair processes in D. radiodurans remains unknown in spite of detailed global cellular analyses including whole genome sequencing and annotation, and transcriptome and proteome profiling of cells recovering from high-dose irradiation. The lack of a clearly identifiable unique DNA repair system in D. radiodurans has given rise to at least four competing views of the mechanisms responsible for its extraordinary survival, and research in this laboratory addresses the following possibilities: 1) There are novel repair functions encoded among hypothetical genes predicted by genomic annotation; 2) D. radiodurans uses conventional DNA repair pathways, but with much greater efficiency than other bacteria; 3) DNA repair in D. radiodurans is promoted by aggregation of its multiple chromosomes; and 4) The unusual metabolic environment of D. radiodurans facilitates recovery.

Selected Publications

Resources