Dr. Amy L. Abdulovic-Cui
Assistant Professor

Office: Science Hall W-2005
Phone: 706-729-2126
Email: aabdulov@aug.edu

CLASSES TAUGHT AT ASU

• BIOL 1101: Fundamentals of Biology
• BIOL 1107: Principles of Biology I
• BIOL 3200: Genetics
• BIOL 4950: Developmental Biology
• BIOL 4950: Molecular Genomics

EDUCATIONAL/CAREER BACKGROUND

• B.S. in Biochemistry - Grove City College, Grove City, PA
• Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences - Emory University, Atlanta, GA
• Postdoctoral Fellow at National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - Durham, NC

FUN FACT(S)

Many people ask about the origin of my last name. Abdulovic (my maiden name) is Slovak as my grandfather grew up in the former country of Yugoslavia. Cui (my married name) is Filipino as my husband was born in the Philippines. How to say my name: Abdul (like Paula Abdul) + o + vic + Qee (sounds like bee).

I grew up in Pittsburgh PA and I am a huge football fan and of course my favorite team is the 6-time Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

It would take a person typing 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, around 50 years to type the human genome.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My primary research focuses on all aspects of DNA fidelity. I am interested in how different agents damage DNA and then how that damage is converted into mutations with the genome. Recently, I have focused my research the mechanism of DNA replication looking specifically at how the different DNA polymerases and cellular concentrations of nucleotides affect genome stability.

In the future I hope to extend my research on genome stability to focus on highly repetitive DNA sequences or microsatellites. Mutations in microsatellites are associated in many human cancers including Nonpolypopsis Colorectal Cancer. I intend to utilize the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model genetic system to examine the mutagenic potential of microsatellites.

CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECTS AND STUDENTS

April Hammack and Sierra Mannix: Investigating the genetic diversity of different crab species along the Georgia and South Carolina coast lines
Quang Le: Determining the genetic requirements for microsatellite repeats
Vivian Nguyen: Microsatellite instability with imbalanced dNTP pools
Tara Bowers: Identification of possible neuronal genetic markers associated with alcoholism in rats.
Amy Jackson and Amanda Jackson: DNA polymerase fidelity across repetitive DNA

PUBLICATIONS

1. Abdulovic, AL, Hile, SE, Kunkel, TA, and Eckert, KA "The in vitro fidelity of yeast DNA Polymerase and polymerase holoenzymes during dinucleotide microsatellite DNA synthesis" DNA Repair 2011 May; 10(5): 497-505.

2. Abdulovic, AL, Kumar, D, Jorgen, V, Nisson AK, Kunkel, TA, and Chabes, A. "Mechanisms of mutagenesis in vivo due to imbalanced dNTP pools." Nucleic Acids Research, 2011 March; 39(4): 1360-1371.

3. Abdulovic, AL, Minesinger, BK, Jinks-Robertson S., The effect of sequence context on spontaneous Pol-dependent mutagenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nucleic Acids Research, 2008 Apr;36(6):2082-2093.

4. Abdulovic AL, Minesinger, BK, Jinks-Robertson S., Identification of a strand-related bias in the PCNA-mediated bypass of spontaneous lesions by yeast Pol. DNA Repair 2007 Sept; 6(9): 1307-1318.

5. Kim, N, Abdulovic, AL, Gealy, R., Lippert, MJ, Jinks-Robertson, S. Transcriptional-associated mutagenesis in yeast is directly proportional to the level of gene expression and influenced by the direction of DNA replication DNA Repair 2007 Sept; 6(9): 1285-1296.

6. Abdulovic AL, Kim N, Jinks-Robertson S., Mutagenesis and the three R's in yeast. DNA Repair (Amst). 2006 Apr 8;5(4):409-421.

7. Abdulovic AL, Jinks-Robertson S., The in vivo characterization of translesion synthesis across UV-induced lesions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: insights into Pol zeta- and Pol eta-dependent frameshift mutagenesis. Genetics. 2006 Mar;172(3):1487-1498.

8. Minesinger BK, Abdulovic AL, Ou TM, Jinks-Robertson S., The effect of oxidative metabolism on spontaneous Pol zeta-dependent translesion synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. DNA Repair (Amst). 2006 Feb 3;5(2):226-234.


Additional Information