B.A. in Chemistry, Middlebury College (Advisor: Sunhee Choi)
Ph.D. in Chemistry, Caltech (Advisor: Jacqueline K. Barton)
Postdoctoral Fellow in Biological Engineering, MIT (Advisor: John M. Essigmann)
Professor Sarah Delaney received her BA in Chemistry from Middlebury College where she conducted research with Prof. Sunhee Choi on the mechanism of action of cisplatin anti-cancer analogs. She completed her doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology, working in the laboratory of Prof. Jacqueline Barton on the ability of the DNA base stack to serve as a medium for charge transfer reactions. Prof. Delaney was a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of John Essigmann at MIT where she studied the mutagenicity and toxicity of a variety of oxidized guanine lesions. Prof. Delaney is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Brown University. She is deeply engaged with graduate education and mentoring and has served as a member of the Brown University Graduate Council, as Director of Graduate Studies in Chemistry, as a long-time mentor on several National Institutes of Health training grants, and is currently the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the Graduate School. Research in her laboratory is focused on establishing a chemically logical roadmap to understand how DNA damage relates to genetic change and human disease. In addition to researching the biochemistry of DNA damage she has an interest in cooking and how chemistry influences food. She teaches Organic Chemistry, Chemical Biology, a professional skills development course for doctoral students, and a broad interest course entitled Kitchen Chemistry. She has been awarded an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award from NIH/NIEHS (2010), the Philip J. Bray Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Physical Sciences from Brown University (2011), and the Graduate School Faculty Award for Advising and Mentoring (2020).
Caffrey, Paul J., Delaney, Sarah. "Nucleosome Core Particles Lacking H2B or H3 Tails Are Altered Structurally and Have Differential Base Excision Repair Fingerprints." Biochemistry, vol. 60, no. 3, 2021, pp. 210-218. |
Rioux KL, Delaney S. "1,N6-Ethenoadenine: From Molecular to Biological Consequences." Chemical Research in Toxicology, vol. 33, no. 11, 2020, pp. 2688-2698. |
Caffrey PJ, Delaney S. "Chromatin and other obstacles to base excision repair: potential roles in carcinogenesis." Mutagenesis, vol. 35, no. 1, 2020, pp. 39-50. |
Caffrey PJ, Kher R, Bian K, Li D, Delaney S. "Comparison of the Base Excision and Direct Reversal Repair Pathways for Correcting 1,N6-Ethenoadenine in Strongly Positioned Nucleosome Core Particles." Chemical Research in Toxicology, vol. 33, no. 7, 2020, pp. 1888-1896. |
Li, Chuxuan, Delaney, Sarah. "Challenges for base excision repair enzymes: Acquiring access to damaged DNA in chromatin.", 2019, pp. 27-57. |
Kennedy EE, Li C, Delaney S. "Global Repair Profile of Human Alkyladenine DNA Glycosylase on Nucleosomes Reveals DNA Packaging Effects." ACS Chemical Biology, vol. 14, no. 8, 2019, pp. 1687-1692. |
Li C, Delaney S. "Histone H2A variants enhance the initiation of base excision repair in nucleosomes." ACS Chemical Biology, 2019. |
Bilotti K, Tarantino ME, Delaney S. "hOGG1 removes solution-accessible 8-oxoG lesions from globally-substituted nucleosomes except at the dyad region." Biochemistry, vol. 57, 2018, pp. 1436-1439. |
Kennedy, Erin E., Caffrey, Paul J., Delaney, Sarah. "Initiating base excision repair in chromatin." DNA Repair, vol. 71, 2018, pp. 87-92. |
Tarantino ME, Dow BJ, Drohat AC, Delaney S. "Nucleosomes and the three glycosylases: High, medium, and low levels of excision by the uracil DNA glycosylase superfamily." DNA Repair, vol. 72, 2018, pp. 56-63. |
Olmon, Eric D., Delaney, Sarah. "Differential ability of five DNA glycosylases to recognize and repair damage on nucleosomal DNA." ACS Chemical Biology, vol. 12, no. 3, 2017, pp. 692-701. |
Bilotti, K., Kennedy, E.E., Li, C., Delaney, S. "Human OGG1 activity in nucleosomes is facilitated by transient unwrapping of DNA and is influenced by the local histone environment." DNA Repair, vol. 59, 2017, pp. 1-8. |
Huang J, Delaney S. "Unique Length-Dependent Biophysical Properties of Repetitive DNA." The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 120, no. 18, 2016, pp. 4195-203. |
Huang, Ji, Yennie, Craig J., Delaney, Sarah. "Klenow Fragment Discriminates against the Incorporation of the Hyperoxidized dGTP Lesion Spiroiminodihydantoin into DNA." Chemical Research in Toxicology, vol. 28, no. 12, 2015, pp. 2325-2333. |
Tarantino, Mary E., Bilotti, Katharina, Huang, Ji, Delaney, Sarah. "Rate-determining Step of Flap Endonuclease 1 (FEN1) Reflects a Kinetic Bias against Long Flaps and Trinucleotide Repeat Sequences." Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 290, no. 34, 2015, pp. 21154-21162. |
Schermerhorn, Kelly M., Delaney, Sarah. "A Chemical and Kinetic Perspective on Base Excision Repair of DNA." Accounts of Chemical Research, vol. 47, no. 4, 2014, pp. 1238-1246. |
Volle, Catherine B, Delaney, Sarah. "AGG/CCT interruptions affect nucleosome formation and positioning of healthy-length CGG/CCG triplet repeats." BMC Biochemistry, vol. 14, no. 1, 2013, pp. 33. |
Schermerhorn, Kelly M., Delaney, Sarah. "Transient-State Kinetics of Apurinic/Apyrimidinic (AP) Endonuclease 1 Acting on an Authentic AP Site and Commonly Used Substrate Analogs: The Effect of Diverse Metal Ions and Base Mismatches." Biochemistry, vol. 52, no. 43, 2013, pp. 7669-7677. |
Volle CB, Delaney S. "CAG/CTG repeats alter the affinity for the histone core and the positioning of DNA in the nucleosome." Biochemistry, vol. 51, no. 49, 2012, pp. 9814-25. |
Delaney, Sarah, Jarem, Daniel A., Volle, Catherine B., Yennie, Craig J. "Chemical and biological consequences of oxidatively damaged guanine in DNA." Free Radic Res, vol. 46, no. 4, 2012, pp. 420-441. |
Yennie CJ, Delaney S. "Thermodynamic consequences of the hyperoxidized guanine lesion guanidinohydantoin in duplex DNA." Chemical Research in Toxicology, vol. 25, no. 8, 2012, pp. 1732-9. |
Volle CB, Jarem DA, Delaney S. "Trinucleotide repeat DNA alters structure to minimize the thermodynamic impact of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine." Biochemistry, vol. 51, no. 1, 2012, pp. 52-62. |
Avila-Figueroa A, Cattie D, Delaney S. "A small unstructured nucleic acid disrupts a trinucleotide repeat hairpin." Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 413, no. 4, 2011, pp. 532-6. |
Cooper, Daniel C., Yennie, Craig J., Morin, Jesse B., Delaney, Sarah, Suggs, J. William. "Development of a DNA-damaging ferrocene amino acid." Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, vol. 696, no. 19, 2011, pp. 3058-3061. |
Jarem DA, Wilson NR, Schermerhorn KM, Delaney S. "Incidence and persistence of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine within a hairpin intermediate exacerbates a toxic oxidation cycle associated with trinucleotide repeat expansion." DNA Repair, vol. 10, no. 8, 2011, pp. 887-96. |
Jarem DA, Delaney S. "Premutation huntingtin allele adopts a non-B conformation and contains a hot spot for DNA damage." Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 416, no. 1-2, 2011, pp. 146-52. |
Figueroa AA, Cattie D, Delaney S. "Structure of even/odd trinucleotide repeat sequences modulates persistence of non-B conformations and conversion to duplex." Biochemistry, vol. 50, no. 21, 2011, pp. 4441-50. |
Jarem DA, Huckaby LV, Delaney S. "AGG interruptions in (CGG)(n) DNA repeat tracts modulate the structure and thermodynamics of non-B conformations in vitro." Biochemistry, vol. 49, no. 32, 2010, pp. 6826-37. |
Avila Figueroa A, Delaney S. "Mechanistic studies of hairpin to duplex conversion for trinucleotide repeat sequences." Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 285, no. 19, 2010, pp. 14648-57. |
Jarem DA, Wilson NR, Delaney S. "Structure-dependent DNA damage and repair in a trinucleotide repeat sequence." Biochemistry, vol. 48, no. 28, 2009, pp. 6655-63. |
Delaney S, Delaney JC, Essigmann JM. "Chemical-biological fingerprinting: probing the properties of DNA lesions formed by peroxynitrite." Chemical Research in Toxicology, vol. 20, no. 11, 2007, pp. 1718-29. |
Neeley WL, Delaney S, Alekseyev YO, Jarosz DF, Delaney JC, Walker GC, Essigmann JM. "DNA polymerase V allows bypass of toxic guanine oxidation products in vivo." Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 282, no. 17, 2007, pp. 12741-8. |
Delaney S, Neeley WL, Delaney JC, Essigmann JM. "The substrate specificity of MutY for hyperoxidized guanine lesions in vivo." Biochemistry, vol. 46, no. 5, 2007, pp. 1448-55. |
Delaney S, Yoo J, Stemp ED, Barton JK. "Charge equilibration between two distinct sites in double helical DNA." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 101, no. 29, 2004, pp. 10511-6. |
Delaney S, Barton JK. "Charge transport in DNA duplex/quadruplex conjugates." Biochemistry, vol. 42, no. 48, 2003, pp. 14159-65. |
Delaney S, Barton JK. "Long-range DNA charge transport." J. Org. Chem., vol. 68, no. 17, 2003, pp. 6475-83. |
Yoo J, Delaney S, Stemp ED, Barton JK. "Rapid radical formation by DNA charge transport through sequences lacking intervening guanines." J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 125, no. 22, 2003, pp. 6640-1. |
Delaney S, Pascaly M, Bhattacharya PK, Han K, Barton JK. "Oxidative damage by ruthenium complexes containing the dipyridophenazine ligand or its derivatives: a focus on intercalation." Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 41, no. 7, 2002, pp. 1966-74. |
Choi S, Delaney S, Orbai L, Padgett EJ, Hakemian AS. "A platinum(IV) complex oxidizes guanine to 8-oxo-guanine in DNA and RNA." Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 40, no. 22, 2001, pp. 5481-2. |
Choi S, Mahalingaiah S, Delaney S, Neale NR, Masood S. "Substitution and Reduction of Platinum(IV) Complexes by a Nucleotide, Guanosine 5'-Monophosphate." Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 38, no. 8, 1999, pp. 1800-1805. |
Choi, Sunhee, Filotto, Catherine, Bisanzo, Mark, Delaney, Sarah, Lagasee, Daniel, Whitworth, Jennifer L., Jusko, Andrew, Li, Chengruo, Wood, Nicole A., Willingham, Jennifer, Schwenker, Amy, Spaulding, Kathleen. "Reduction and Anticancer Activity of Platinum(IV) Complexes." Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 37, no. 10, 1998, pp. 2500-2504. |
Year | Degree | Institution |
---|---|---|
2004 | PhD | California Institute of Technology |
1999 | BA | Middlebury College |
2004-2007 - Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship
2008 - Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award from Brown University
2009 - NSF ADVANCE Career Development Award
2010-2015 - NIH/NIEHS Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award
2011-2013 - Philip J. Bray Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Physical Sciences from Brown University
2020 - Graduate School Faculty Award for Advising and Mentoring from Brown University
CHEM 0090 - Kitchen Chemistry |
CHEM 0350 - Organic Chemistry |
CHEM 1230 - Chemical Biology |
CHEM 2870 - Departmental Colloquia |