Claudia Nicolae, PhD - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile
Claudia Nicolae, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Precision Medicine
Scientific Program:Next-Generation Therapies
Recent Publications
2025
Dhoonmoon, A, Ambrose, JR, Garg, S, Lascarez-Espana, C, Rebok, A, Spratt, TE, Moldovan, GL & Nicolae, CM 2025, 'Translesion-synthesis-mediated bypass of DNA lesions occurs predominantly behind replication forks restarted by PrimPol', Cell Reports, vol. 44, no. 3, 115360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115360
2024
Straka, J, Khatib, JB, Pale, L, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2024, 'CAF-1 promotes efficient PrimPol recruitment to nascent DNA for single-stranded DNA gap formation', Nucleic acids research, vol. 52, no. 22, pp. 13865-13880. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae1068
Pale, LM, Khatib, JB, Nusawardhana, A, Straka, J, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2024, 'CRISPR knockout genome-wide screens identify the HELQ-RAD52 axis in regulating the repair of cisplatin-induced single-stranded DNA gaps', Nucleic acids research, vol. 52, no. 22, pp. 13832-13848. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae998
Khatib, JB, Dhoonmoon, A, Moldovan, GL & Nicolae, CM 2024, 'PARP10 promotes the repair of nascent strand DNA gaps through RAD18 mediated translesion synthesis', Nature communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 6197. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50429-3
Nusawardhana, A, Pale, LM, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2024, 'USP1-dependent nucleolytic expansion of PRIMPOL-generated nascent DNA strand discontinuities during replication stress', Nucleic acids research, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 2340-2354. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad1237
2023
Dhoonmoon, A & Nicolae, CM 2023, 'Mono-ADP-ribosylation by PARP10 and PARP14 in genome stability', NAR Cancer, vol. 5, no. 1, zcad009. https://doi.org/10.1093/narcan/zcad009
Hale, A, Dhoonmoon, A, Straka, J, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2023, 'Multi-step processing of replication stress-derived nascent strand DNA gaps by MRE11 and EXO1 nucleases', Nature communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 6265. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42011-0
Khatib, JB, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2024, 'Role of Translesion DNA Synthesis in the Metabolism of Replication-associated Nascent Strand Gaps', Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 436, no. 1, 168275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168275
2022
Khatib, JB, Schleicher, EM, Jackson, LM, Dhoonmoon, A, Moldovan, GL & Nicolae, CM 2022, 'Complementary CRISPR genome-wide genetic screens in PARP10-knockout and overexpressing cells identify synthetic interactions for PARP10-mediated cellular survival', Oncotarget, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1078-1091. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28277
Thakar, T, Dhoonmoon, A, Straka, J, Schleicher, EM, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2022, 'Lagging strand gap suppression connects BRCA-mediated fork protection to nucleosome assembly through PCNA-dependent CAF-1 recycling', Nature communications, vol. 13, no. 1, 5323. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33028-y
Abu-Libdeh, B, Jhujh, SS, Dhar, S, Sommers, JA, Datta, A, Longo, GMC, Grange, LJ, Reynolds, JJ, Cooke, SL, McNee, GS, Hollingworth, R, Woodward, BL, Ganesh, AN, Smerdon, SJ, Nicolae, CM, Durlacher-Betzer, K, Molho-Pessach, V, Abu-Libdeh, A, Meiner, V, Moldovan, GL, Roukos, V, Harel, T, Brosh, RM & Stewart, GS 2022, 'RECON syndrome is a genome instability disorder caused by mutations in the DNA helicase RECQL1', Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol. 132, no. 5, e147301. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI147301
Dhoonmoon, A, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2022, 'The KU-PARP14 axis differentially regulates DNA resection at stalled replication forks by MRE11 and EXO1', Nature communications, vol. 13, no. 1, 5063. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32756-5
Schleicher, EM, Dhoonmoon, A, Jackson, LM, Khatib, JB, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2022, 'The TIP60-ATM axis regulates replication fork stability in BRCA-deficient cells', Oncogenesis, vol. 11, no. 1, 33. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41389-022-00410-w
Hirschler-Laszkiewicz, I, Festa, F, Huang, S, Moldovan, GL, Nicolae, C, Dhoonmoon, A, Bao, L, Keefer, K, Chen, SJ, Wang, HG, Cheung, JY & Miller, BA 2022, 'The human ion channel TRPM2 modulates cell survival in neuroblastoma through E2F1 and FOXM1', Scientific reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 6311. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10385-8
2021
Jackson, LM, Dhoonmoon, A, Hale, A, Dennis, KA, Schleicher, EM, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2021, 'Loss of MED12 activates the TGFβ pathway to promote chemoresistance and replication fork stability in BRCA-deficient cells', Nucleic acids research, vol. 49, no. 22, pp. 12855-12869. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab1184
O’Connor, MJ, Thakar, T, Nicolae, CM & Moldovan, GL 2021, 'PARP14 regulates cyclin D1 expression to promote cell-cycle progression', Oncogene, vol. 40, no. 30, pp. 4872-4883. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-021-01881-8
Datta, A, Biswas, K, Sommers, JA, Thompson, H, Awate, S, Nicolae, CM, Thakar, T, Moldovan, GL, Shoemaker, RH, Sharan, SK & Brosh, RM 2021, 'WRN helicase safeguards deprotected replication forks in BRCA2-mutated cancer cells', Nature communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 6561. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26811-w