PhD defence
DNA repair in motion: from molecular interactions to break-repair dynamics
- V. Mangkusaputra
- Date
- Thursday 8 October 2026
- Time
- Location
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Supervisor(s)
- Prof.dr. H. van Attikum
- dr. S.M. Noordermeer
Summary
How does one get cancer?
It is a question I often hear when people learn that my PhD focuses on cancer research. It sounds deceptively simple, but beneath it lies a complex story — a story of DNA, damage, and the cellular guardians of repair.
DNA is the instruction manual of life. Written using just four chemical letters — A, T, C, and G — it contains the information that tells our cells how to function and our bodies how to develop.
But unlike a printed instruction manual, DNA does not remain untouched. It is constantly read, copied, and inevitably damaged. In fact, DNA damage occurs thousands of times in every cell, every day. Fortunately, our cells are equipped with sophisticated repair systems. Specialized proteins continuously detect and repair this damage, protecting the instructions our cells depend on.
But here lies a paradox: the instructions for making these repair proteins are themselves written in DNA.
So what happens when those instructions are defective? A damaged instruction manual can produce a faulty repair system, allowing even more errors to accumulate. Over time, these errors can disrupt how cells behave and, in some cases, contribute to the development of cancer.
My PhD research explores this delicate system. Which proteins repair our DNA? How do they work together? Which mutations make them defective? Can we recognize the damage pattern caused by these defects? By answering these questions, we can better understand the complex processes that determine how our cells respond to and repair DNA damage — and, ultimately, how failures in these processes may contribute to diseases such as cancer.
PhD dissertations
Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.
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General information
Beadle's Office
pedel@bb.leidenuniv.nl
+31 71 527 7211