Pamela Cook, PhD
Education
- BA, Communications, Wake Forest University
- BSN, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
- PhD, Interdisciplinary Program in Biological Sciences, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University
- Postdoctoral study, LINE-1 Retrotransposons, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Research Interest
The focus of Dr. Cook’s lab is LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposons, a type of transposable element in the human genome that replicates via a “copy and paste” mechanism. LINE-1 enzymatic activity has generated approximately one third of human nuclear DNA, consisting not only of LINE-1 but also shorter retrotransposons known as SINEs and several thousand mRNA pseudogenes, all of which rely on LINE-1 to reverse transcribe RNA to cDNA and integrate it into the genome. The goals of the Cook lab include understanding the basic biology of LINE-1 retrotransposons, their interactions with the host, and the roles of LINE-1 in diseases associated with upregulated LINE-1.
Selected publications
- Kim J, Pena JV, McQueen HP, Kong L, Lomashvili EM, Michael D, and Cook PR. 2023. Downstream STING pathways IRF3 and NF-κB differentially regulate CCL22 in response to cytosolic dsDNA. Cancer Gene Therapy. PMID: 37990062.
- Furano AV, Jones CE, Periwal, V, Callahan KE, Walser JC, and Cook PR. 2020. Cryptic genetic variation enhances primate L1 retrotransposon survival by enlarging the functional coiled coil sequence space of ORF1p. Plos Genetics. PMID: 32797042.
- Cook PR and Tabor GT. 2016. Deciphering fact from artifact when using reporter assays to investigate the roles of host factors on L1 retrotransposition. Mobile DNA. PMID: 27895722.
- Naufer MN, Callahan KE, Cook PR, Perez-Gonzalez CE, Williams MC, and Furano AV. 2016. L1 retrotransposition requires rapid ORF1p oligomerization, a novel coiled coil-dependent property conserved despite extensive remodeling. Nucleic Acids Research. PMID: 26673717.
- Furano AV and Cook PR. 2015. The challenge of ORF1p phosphorylation. Mobile Genetic Elements. PMID: 27066302.
- Cook PR, Jones CE, and Furano AV. 2015. Phosphorylation of ORF1p is required for L1 retrotransposition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 25831499.