Karolin Luger
Distinguished Professor • Jennie Smoly Caruthers Endowed Chair of Biochemistry
karolin.luger@colorado.edu
303-735-6689

Office: JSCBB A223
Lab: JSCBB A255

Education

Ph.D:听Biocenter, University of Basel
Postdoctoral Fellow:听ETH Zuerich

Areas of Expertise

Cancer Biology, Chromatin, Electron Cryo-Microscopy (cryo-EM), Epigenetics, Gene Expression and Regulation, Molecular Biophysics, Nucleic Acids, Proteins and Enzymology, and Structural Biology.

Awards and Honors

  • 2023 World Laureates Association Prize
  • Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute听
  • EMBO Associate Member
  • National Academy of Science Member
  • American Academy of Arts & Sciences Member

We are working towards a quantitative, mechanistic, and structural description of chromatin. We are interested in the evolutionary origin of the nucleosome and study histone-based chro-matin in non-eukaryotic organisms. We also have an active research program addressing the structure, enzymology and in vivo role of poly-ADP-ribose)-polymerases, with a focus on the interactions of PARP1 and PARP2 with chromatin, its mechanism of acti-vation, and its inhibition for cancer therapies (PARP inhibitors). My lab uses a wide palette of approaches, such as x-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, analytical ultracentrifugation, affinity assays, hydrogen-deuterium exchange coupled to mass spectrometry, atomic force microscopy, and life-cell microscopy.

厂别别听听for a full and up-to-date list

  • Liu, Y., K. Zhou, N. Zhang, H. Wei, Y. Z. Tan, Z. Zhang, B. Carragher, C. S. Potter, S. D'Arcy and K. Luger (2020). "FACT caught in the act of manipulating the nucleosome." Nature 577(7790): 426-431.
  • Liu, Y., Bisio, H., Toner, C.M., Jeudy, S., Philippe, N., Zhou, K., Bowerman, S., White, A., Edwards, G., Abergel, C., et al. (2021). Virus-encoded histone doublets are essential and form nucleosome-like structures. Cell 184, 4237-4250 e4219.
  • Rudolph, J., U. M. Muthurajan, M. Palacio, J. Mahadevan, G. Roberts, A. Erbse, P. N. Dyer and K. Luger (2021). "The BRCT Domain of PARP1 Binds Intact DNA and Mediates Intrastrand Transfer." Mol.Cell (24), 4994-5006 e4995.
  • Hocher, A., Laursen, S.P., Radford, P., Tyson, J., Lambert, C., Stevens, K.M., Picardeau, M., Sockett, R.E., Luger, K. and Warnecke, T. (2023) Histone-organized chromatin in bacteria. bioRxiv, 2023.2001.2026.525422. 听

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Articles featuring Karolin Luger

CU 麻豆影院 distinguished professor Karolin Luger received the 2023 World Laureates Association Prize in Life Science or Medicine Thursday.
CU 麻豆影院 distinguished professor Karolin Luger is awarded the 2023 World Laureates Association Prize in Life Sciences or Medicine

Sept. 14, 2023

麻豆影院 researcher Karolin Luger , a distinguished professor of biochemistry and Jennie Smoly Caruthers Endowed Chair of Biochemistry, has been awarded the 2023 World Laureates Association Prize in Life Science or Medicine. The award, announced Thursday morning in Shanghai, China, recognizes Luger鈥檚 deep body of research 鈥渆lucidating...

Luger Distinguished Professor Award 2023
Karolin Luger is one of a select group of professors to be recognized as a Distinguished Professor, the highest honor bestowed upon faculty members

Feb. 15, 2023

With a vote by the CU Board of Regents, the University of Colorado recently recognized Karolin Luger as a Distinguished Professor鈥攖he highest honor bestowed upon faculty across the system鈥檚 four campuses.

briana_aboulache
PhD student, professor win major inclusivity fellowship

Aug. 2, 2021

Briana Aboulache and Karolin Luger win Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam fellowship, which looks to build a more inclusive scientific environment

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