Robert L. Eoff
Professor
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
faculty
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, College of Medicine
Research Areas
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Biography and Research Information
OverviewAI-generated summary
Robert L. Eoff is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. His research focuses on DNA replication and damage tolerance pathways, aiming to understand their fundamental mechanisms and their relationship to human health, particularly in the context of cancer and aging. Eoff's expertise encompasses biochemical and biophysical enzyme analysis, structural biology using X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling, and mass spectrometry. He has contributed to structural biology by solving thirty-four crystal structures submitted to the Protein Data Bank, including five structures from his own laboratory since joining UAMS. He maintains an active collaboration with the Northeastern Collaborative Access Team (NE-CAT) at the Advanced Photon Source for data collection.
His laboratory investigates how DNA damage tolerance mechanisms function under normal conditions and how they malfunction during tumorigenesis or with age. Recent publications from his group explore topics such as the role of human Rev1 in replicating stabilized G-quadruplex motifs, the impact of tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase inhibition on DNA damage tolerance in glioma cells, and the synthesis and analysis of modified oligonucleotides. He has also been involved in research related to glioblastoma, including studies on organoid models, precision medicine pipelines, and the anti-glioblastoma activity of certain compounds.
Eoff's work is supported by federal grants, including a $2,065,501 NIH/NIGMS grant for the Center for Molecular Interactions in Cancer (CMIC) and a $1,100,000 NSF grant for research on the replication of G-quadruplex DNA by translesion polymerases. He is recognized as a highly cited researcher, with 120 publications and 2,647 citations, and an h-index of 30. He actively collaborates with researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, including Megan R. Reed, Amit Ketkar, Analiz Rodriguez, and Leena Maddukuri.
Research Overview
The research I pursue is focused on DNA replication and seeks to provide fundamental insights into how these mechanisms are related to human health, especially cancer. I have expertise in a number of areas pertinent to the current application including: biochemical/biophysical analysis of enzymes, structural biology (X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling techniques), mass spectrometry and genomic instability in cancer. In addition to in silico modeling approaches, I have been involved in solving thirty-four crystal structures submitted to the Protein Data Bank. I am first author on seventeen of these PDB submissions, and my laboratory has solved five crystal structures since I joined the faculty at UAMS. I have an active collaboration (General users proposal, GUP-41183) with the Northeastern collaborative access team (NE-CAT) at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) that grants us access to the 24-ID-E and 24-ID-C beamlines for data collection. The research I pursue is focused on DNA damage tolerance pathways and seeks to provide fundamental insights into how these mechanisms function under basal conditions and how they go astray during tumorigenesis or as a function of age. I have received funding from the National Institutes of Health in the form of an R00 award (GM084460) and a R01 (CA183895). I have established a strong research program with two senior post-doctoral fellows and three Ph.D. students. In less than four years, my team has published nine full, peer-reviewed research articles on which I am corresponding author. Work from my group has recently culminated in a manuscript that reveals important and previously unrecognized properties related to Werner’s syndrome protein (WRN) modulation of polymerase activity during bypass of oxidative DNA damage. Experiments from my group illustrate that WRN has a strong impact on the DNA adduct bypass properties of human DNA polymerases (pols) eta and kappa, inducing more accurate synthesis across oxidative damage (published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry and Nucleic Acids Research). Another study from my laboratory that was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Peter Crooks (UAMS) identified novel small-molecule inhibitors of the replication stress response enzyme human DNA polymerase eta, with the resulting manuscript recently being published in ACS Chemical Biology. We continue to pursue projects related to translesion polymerase activity in cancer and are actively developing new TLS pol inhibitors as a way to sensitize tumors to genotoxic anti-cancer drugs (e.g. cisplatin, doxorubicin). My long-term goal is to contribute in a meaningful fashion to the scientific endeavors that seek to improve human health, our ability to treat disease & our fundamental understanding of living systems.
Metrics
- h-index: 30
- Publications: 120
- Citations: 2,647
Selected Publications
- Evaluation of the Activity of Monensin and Its Analogs for Modulation of Stem-like Cell Functionality in 2D and 3D Breast Cancer Models (2025) DOI
- Monensin and Its Analogs Exhibit Activity Against Breast Cancer Stem-Like Cells in an Organoid Model (2025) DOI
- Abstract 1333 DNA polymerase kappa (Pol k) promotes replication gap suppression by preventing PrimPol mediated repriming and safeguards genomic stability in Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) (2024) DOI
- Conservation of the insert-2 motif confers Rev1 from different species with an ability to disrupt G-quadruplexes and stimulate translesion DNA synthesis (2023) DOI
- Anti-glioblastoma activity of monensin and its analogs in an organoid model of cancer (2022) DOI
- Monensin and its analogues show anti‐glioblastoma activity in an organoid model of cancer (2022) DOI
- 323 Generation of a functional precision medicine pipeline which combines comparative transcriptomics and tumor organoid modeling to identify bespoke treatment strategies for glioblastoma (2022) DOI
- Site-Specific Synthesis of Oligonucleotides Containing 6-Oxo-M<sub>1</sub>dG, the Genomic Metabolite of M<sub>1</sub>dG, and Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Its In Vitro Bypass by Human Polymerase ι (2021) DOI
- A Functional Precision Medicine Pipeline Combines Comparative Transcriptomics and Tumor Organoid Modeling to Identify Bespoke Treatment Strategies for Glioblastoma (2021) DOI
- Biobanked Glioblastoma Patient-Derived Organoids as a Precision Medicine Model to Study Inhibition of Invasion (2021) DOI
- Inositol serves as a natural inhibitor of mitochondrial fission by directly targeting AMPK (2021) DOI
- Single and double modified salinomycin analogs target stem-like cells in 2D and 3D breast cancer models (2021) DOI
- Deletion of putative xenobiotic response elements (XREs) in hpol κ alters the replication stress response and overall genomic instability in glioblastoma cells (2021) DOI
- Selective Binding Of Human Rev1 With G‐Quadruplex DNA Is Determined By A Region Unique to Higher Eukaryotes (2021) DOI
- DNA Polymerase Kappa Acts as a Barrier to Unrestrained Replication in Glioblastoma (2021) DOI
Federal Grants 2 $3,165,501 total
Grants & Funding
- Advancing Breast Cancer Treatment through Suppression of Chemo-Resistance UAMS Executive Breast Committee Principal Investigator
- Functions and Mechanisms of Helicases and G-Quadruplex Nucleic Acids NIH Co-Investigator
- No FP attached UAMS Executive Breast Committee Principal Investigator
- Coordinating Translesion DNA Synthesis Opposite Damaged DNA NIH Principal Investigator
- ABI R. Eoff COBRE FY26 Y2 State of Arkansas Principal Investigator
- No FP attached UAMS College of Medicine Principal Investigator
- Seeds of Science Pilot award UAMS Internal Research Awards Principal Investigator
- Translesion DNA polymerase kappa activity in gliomas NIH Principal Investigator
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