Natalie Saini, Ph.D.

I am an Assistant Professor in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). My long-term research goal is to determine the impacts of environmental and endogenous sources of DNA damage on genome integrity. Genome instability is a hallmark of almost all cancers. Moreover, various studies have demonstrated that increased genome instability leads to carcinogenesis with more than half the mutations in tumors arising in pre-cancer cells. As such, understanding the causes of genome instability in pre-cancer tissues and in cancers is essential to develop early diagnostic strategies and interventions to prevent tumorigenesis.