Agata Smogorzewska is a Polish-born scientist. She is an associate professor at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

, heading the Laboratory of Genome Maintenance. Her work primarily focuses on DNA interstrand crosslink repair and the diseases resulting from deficiencies in this repair pathway, including

Fanconi anemia Fanconi anaemia (FA) is a rare genetic disease resulting in impaired response to DNA damage. Although it is a very rare disorder, study of this and other bone marrow failure syndromes has improved scientific understanding of the mechanisms of nor ...

and karyomegalic interstitial nephritis.

Early life and education

After finishing high school in Poland, Smogorzewska completed her bachelor of science in molecular biology and biochemistry in 1995 at the University of Southern California. She then went on to enroll in the tri-institutional M.D., Ph.D. program of

Weill Cornell The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with N ...

Rockefeller Rockefeller is a German surname, originally given to people from the village of Rockenfeld near Neuwied in the Rhineland and commonly referring to subjects associated with the Rockefeller family. It may refer to: People with the name Rockefeller fa ...

and

Sloan Kettering Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute� ...

, finishing her Ph.D. thesis studies on the functions of the telomeric protein, TRF2, in the lab of Dr.

Titia de Lange Titia de Lange (born 11 November 1955, in Rotterdam) is the Director of the Anderson Center for Cancer Research, the Leon Hess professor and the head of Laboratory Cell Biology and Genetics at Rockefeller University. De Lange obtained her Mast ...

at Rockefeller University in 2002, and her medical degree from

in 2003. Smogorzewska then went on to a residency in clinical pathology at the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

from 2003–2006, becoming a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School between 2005–2009 under Dr. Stephen Elledge where she discovered the Fanconi anemia protein FANCI.

Career and research

Smogorzewska became an assistant professor at

in 2009 and was subsequently elevated to associate professor in 2015. Her lab focuses on DNA repair mechanisms, particularly the interstrand crosslink repair pathway, which concerns the cellular mechanisms by which the two strands of DNA that have been covalently linked are excised, creating a double strand DNA break that is subsequently processed by factors in the Fanconi anemia and homologous recombination pathways. In particular, Smogorzewska is interested in identifying new genes that are involved in this repair process in order to reveal the mechanisms at play in human diseases that result from deficiencies in interstrand crosslink repair, including Fanconi anemia and karyomegalic interstitial nephritis. To this end, Smogorzewska has successfully identified

SLX4 SLX4 (also known as BTBD12 and FANCP) is a protein involved in DNA repair, where it has important roles in the final steps of homologous recombination. Mutations in the gene are associated with the disease Fanconi anemia. The version of SLX4 pres ...

RAD51 DNA repair protein RAD51 homolog 1 is a protein encoded by the gene ''RAD51''. The enzyme encoded by this gene is a member of the RAD51 protein family which assists in repair of DNA double strand breaks. RAD51 family members are homologous to th ...

and UBE2T as interstrand crosslink repair factors, as well as developed a mouse model of karyomegalic interstitial nephritis. Recently, Smogorzewska has begun studies revolving around how

replication stress DNA replication stress refers to the state of a cell whose genome is exposed to various stresses. The events that contribute to replication stress occur during DNA replication, and can result in a stalled replication fork. There are many events t ...

is addressed by cells to promote genome stability. Smogorzewska is a part of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the New York Academy of Sciences, the

American Society of Clinical Investigation American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

and the American Society of Human Genetics

Awards

* Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award * Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award – 2008 * Irma T. Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Trust Research Award – 2010 * Rita Allen Foundation Scholar – 2010 * Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award – 2011 * Pershing Square Sohn Prize – 2014 * The Rockefeller University Distinguished Teaching Award – 2014 * David B. Frohnmayer Early Investigator Award – 2015 * Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar – 2016 * Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Early-Career Innovation Award – 2017

Selected publications

Regulation of telomerase by telomeric proteins – Annual Review of Biochemistry, 2004 Control of human telomere length by TRF1 and TRF2 – Molecular and Cellular Biology 2000 Identification of the FANCI protein, a monoubiquitinated FANCD2 paralog required for DNA repair – Cell, 2007 Different telomere damage signaling pathways in human and mouse cells – The EMBO Journal, 2002 Fanconi anaemia and the repair of Watson and Crick DNA crosslinks – Nature, 2013 DNA ligase IV-dependent NHEJ of deprotected mammalian telomeres in G1 and G2 – Current Biology, 2002 A genetic screen identifies FAN1, a Fanconi anemia-associated nuclease necessary for DNA interstrand crosslink repair – Molecular Cell 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smogorzewska, Agata Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Rockefeller University faculty Polish emigrants to the United States