Research Staff

Bio

Dr. Sean Howard joined Boise State University in March 2021 as a Research Technician and Laboratory Manager for the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering in the Mechanical Adaptations Laboratory. His area of research primarily focuses on how mechanical signals are transduced within the cell. The overall goal of this research is to determine how environmental cues are transmitted at a cellular level and how stem cells respond to these cues in regard to differentiation into different tissue types.

Dr. Howard completed his Ph.D in Molecular Biology from the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte California and completed his Postdoctoral training at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona, Switzerland. The focus of his previous research was on understanding the mechanisms of DNA double strand break repair pathways to increase our understanding of cancer etiology and discover novel therapeutic targets.

Education

Ph.D. in Molecular Biology – Irell and Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at the City of Hope, Duarte CA. (2011-2016)

Dissertation: “DNA Damage Response Factors from Diverse Pathways, Including DNA Crosslink Repair, Mediate Alternative End Joining”

Advisor: Dr. Jeremy Stark

Certificate in Bioscience Management – Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont CA. (2013-2015)

B.S. in Wildlife Biology – University of Idaho, Moscow ID (2003-2008)

Senior Thesis Project:” The Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Mongolian Wolves”

Advisor: Dr. Lisette Waits

Publications

• Howard SM, Ceppi I, Anand R, Geiger R and Cejka P. (2020) The internal region of CtIP functions as a regulator of DNA end resection. Nucleic Acids Res. 48(10): 5485-5498.
• Ceppi I, Howard SM, Kasaciunaite K, Pinto C, Anand R, Seidel R and Cejka, P (2020): CtIP promotes the motor activity of DNA2 to accelerate long-range DNA end resection. PNAS. 117(16) 8859-8869.
• Anand R, Jasrotia A, Bundschuh D, Howard SM, Ranjha L, Stucki M and Cejka, P (2019) NBS1 promotes the endonuclease activity of the MRE11-RAD50 complex by sensing CtIP phosphorylation. EMBO J. 38(7): e101005.
• Ranjha L, Howard SM. and Cejka, P. (2018) Main steps in DNA double-strand break repair: an introduction to homologous recombination and related processes. Chromosoma. 127(2): 187-214.
• D’Alessandro G, Whelan DR, Howard SM, Vitelli V, Renaudin X, Adamowicz M, Iannelli F, JonesWeinert CW, Lee M, Matti V, Lee WTC, Morten MJ, Venkitaraman AR, Cejka P, Rothenberg E, d’Adda di Fagagna F. (2018) BRCA2 controls DNA:RNA hybrid level at DSBs by mediating RNase H2 recruitment. Nat Commun. 18;9(1):5376.
• Onyango DO, Howard SM, Neherin K, Yanez DA, Stark JM. (2016) Tetratricopeptide repeat factor XAB2 mediates the end resection step of homologous recombination. Nucleic Acids Res. 8;44(12):5702-16.
• Howard SM, Yanez DA, Stark JM. (2015) DNA damage response factors from diverse pathways, including DNA crosslink repair, mediate alternative end joining. PLoS Genet. 28;11(1).

Research

Postdoctoral Research Associate – To Dr. Petr Cejka at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona Switzerland.

• Used biochemistry to determine the mechanisms of how CtIP promotes the nuclease activity of the MRN complex in initiating DNA end resection for Homologous Recombination

Ph.D. Candidate – To Dr. Jeremy Stark in the Department of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte California.

• Used DNA double strand break reporter assays to identify novel mediators of the microhomology-mediated end joining repair pathway

Undergraduate Research Technician ­– To Dr. Lisette Waits in the Department of Wildlife Resources at the University of Idaho, Moscow Idaho.

• Studied the genetic diversity and population structure of Mongolian Wolves