Rick Maser, cancer and aging researcher, joins The Jackson Laboratory

Date: April 28, 2008

Bar Harbor, Maine - Dr. Rick Maser, a geneticist who shares three patents on DNA repair mechanisms, is joining The Jackson Laboratory to study certain biological mechanisms that are linked to cancers and to many of the harmful effects of aging.

Dr. Maser's appointment as Jackson Laboratory assistant professor begins in late June, as he ends a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Ron DePinho at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, in the Department of Medical Oncology.

His work focuses on telomeres, structures that cap each end of chromosomes. When cells divide in the body's natural renewal process, the chromosomes located in each cell's nucleus must also duplicate themselves. Normally telomeres help to prevent damage during the duplication process. However, in a process that may be the very definition of aging, telomeres themselves erode after each cell division, so chromosomal damage is more likely to occur after multiple divisions. Cells with damaged chromosomes either die, potentially causing tissue or organ damage, or proliferate uncontrollably and become cancer.

Dr. Maser investigates the genes involved in telomere erosion and its impact on cancer, degenerative disease, chronic inflammation and aging in humans. In his postdoctoral research, studying a mouse model of telomere dysfunction, he and his colleagues uncovered scores of cancer-relevant genomic alterations that are also found in a broad range of human tumors.

Jackson Laboratory President and CEO Rick Woychik, Ph.D., notes that Dr. Maser's work "will be a valuable contribution to two major collaborative research programs that are funded by the National Institutes of Health." The Jackson Laboratory is a Cancer Center, designated by the National Cancer Institute to study the genetic basis for all kinds of cancers. And the Jackson Aging Center is one of five Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence, funded by the National Institute on Aging to provide leadership in the pursuit of basic research into understanding aging.

Dr. Maser earned a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001, and has co-authored more than 20 publications (nine as first or co-first author) in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Nature Genetics, Science, and Cell. He is also the co-holder of three patents involving DNA repair mechanisms. Among his honors is a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation fellowship (2002-2005), awarded to "extraordinary young scientists across the nation who are committed to discovering the causes and cures for cancer."

In choosing The Jackson Laboratory to begin his career as a principal investigator, Dr. Maser said, "This is the place to be to understand both the genetics and physiology of the laboratory mouse. The colleagues I will be working with are among the best in the world for using the mouse as model for human disease."

Dr. Maser's appointment brings the number of Jackson Laboratory research groups to 38. The Laboratory is undergoing a major research expansion, with the number of research teams expected to grow to 45 over the next three to five years.

The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution with 1,377 employees in Bar Harbor, Maine, and Sacramento, Calif. Its mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human diseases, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community. Its research staff of more than 500 investigates the genetic basis of cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, diabetes and many other human diseases and disorders, as well as normal development, reproduction and aging. The Laboratory is also the world's source for more than 3,500 strains of genetically defined mice, is home of the mouse genome database and is an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education.

Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, joyce.peterson@jax.org, 207-288-6085

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