Maria Jasin

Maria Jasin performed pioneering work demonstrating that mammalian cells repair breaks in their chromosomes by homologous recombination. In the course of these seminal studies she discovered that repair of chromosomal breaks by homologous recombination is a highly effective approach to gene targeting, an observation with important implications for gene therapy and gene editing technology. In addition, she demonstrated that BRCA1 and BRCA2 are required for repair by homologous recombination, a discovery that revealed a major mechanism for the suppression of breast cancer. Her work has contributed fundamentally to our understanding of how cells preserve the integrity of their genomes.