Luis Cortez

Professional Background

I graduated from Washington State University in 2016 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Biochemistry and Genetics, with minors in chemistry and physics. During my time at WSU I worked with Dr. Steven Roberts, assisting his investigations into how mutations in DNA contribute to disease origination and whether the processes that cause mutations can be prevented to mitigate disease. Using yeast and human cell culture, I investigated how the APOBEC cytidine deaminases (which normally function as part of the innate immune system but when dysregulated can have off target activity towards genomic DNA) induce DNA damage and the pathways by which cells mitigate their effects.

After completing my first two years of medical school here at KUMC, I joined the Laboratory of Genome Maintenance and Structural Biology run by Dr. Bret Freudenthal. Here I am continuing to study the effects of DNA damage on disease origination and progression. Specifically, I am examining the prevalence of ribonucleotide misinsertion into telomeric DNA and its effect on telomere integrity.

Mentor: Bret Freudenthal, Ph.D., Cancer Biology