Cancer and Aging Research Specialist Dr. Rick Maser Joins The Jackson Laboratory
JAX® NOTES Issue 510, Summer 2008
Rick Maser, Ph.D., a geneticist specializing in cancer and aging, will soon be the latest addition to The Jackson Laboratory's scientific staff. Dr. Maser's appointment as Assistant Professor will begin in late June, as he fulfills a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Ron DePinho, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Maser focuses on telomeres, structures that cap the ends of chromosomes and help prevent damage to them during mitosis. However, in a process that may define aging, telomeres themselves erode during mitosis, increasing the likelihood of chromosomal damage with each nuclear division. Cells with damaged chromosomes either die, potentially causing tissue or organ damage, or proliferate uncontrollably and become cancerous. Dr. Maser is investigating the genes involved in telomere erosion and its impact on human cancer, degenerative disease, chronic inflammation, and aging. As a post-doc, while studying a mouse model of telomere dysfunction, Dr. Maser and his colleagues uncovered scores of cancer-relevant genomic alterations that are also found in a broad range of human tumors.
Jackson Laboratory President and CEO Rick Woychik, Ph.D., notes that Dr. Maser's work "will be a valuable contribution to two major collaborative research programs funded by the National Institutes of Health." Dr. Maser's work will contribute to The Jackson Laboratory's mission as a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center: to study the genetic basis for all kinds of cancers. Also, it will enhance the mission of the Jackson Aging Center (one of five Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence, funded by the National Institute on Aging): to provide leadership in basic aging research.
Dr. Maser earned a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. He has co-authored more than 20 publications (nine as first or co-first author) in peer‑reviewed journals, including Nature, Nature Genetics, Science, and Cell. He is also the co-holder of three patents involving DNA repair mechanisms. Among his honors is a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation fellowship (2002-2005), awarded to "extraordinary young scientists across the nation who are committed to discovering the causes and cures for cancer."
In choosing The Jackson Laboratory to begin his career as a principal investigator, Dr. Maser said, "This is the place to be to understand both the genetics and physiology of the laboratory mouse. The colleagues I will be working with are among the best in the world for using the mouse as model for human disease."
(This article was adapted from a Jackson Laboratory press release.)
