Lecture Series in Clinical Chemistry and Biochemistry

Bio: Dr. Cortez graduated summa cum laude in biochemistry from the University of Illinois and obtained a Ph.D. in molecular cancer biology at Duke University. He then completed postdoctoral studies at the Baylor College of Medicine as a Jane Coffin Childs fellow where he discovered ATRIP as a subunit of the ATR cell cycle checkpoint kinase. In 2002, he joined the faculty at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He was promoted to Ingram Professor of Cancer Research in 2009 and named the Richard Armstrong Professor for Innovation in Biochemistry in 2020. Dr. Cortez’s lab identified direct ATR-activating proteins in both human and yeast cells, elucidated the mechanisms of ATR activation, and uncovered critical ATR substrates that orchestrate DNA repair, DNA replication, and cell cycle checkpoints. Dr. Cortez made a landmark discovery of SMARCAL1 as a key replication stress tolerance protein that catalyzes replication fork reversal. He further defined pathways for fork reversal, uncovered the pivotal role of RAD51 in this process, and identified RADX as a novel regulator of RAD51. His lab’s invention of iPOND (isolation of proteins on nascent DNA) revolutionized the field by enabling quantitative characterization of the replication fork proteome. Using iPOND, Dr. Cortez identified approximately 600 proteins involved in DNA replication, chromatin packaging, DNA repair, and stress signaling. Notably, Dr. Cortez leveraged iPOND to uncover a universal DNA damage tolerance mechanism involving HMCES, which protects against mutations and genomic instability by forming a DNA-protein crosslink at abasic sites. Dr. Cortez has won several awards including the Howard Temin Award, Pew Scholar Award, Stanley Cohen Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research, and the Hans Neurath Award. In addition to his research, Dr. Cortez founded the Genome Maintenance Program in the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). He is currently Associate Director of Basic Research in the VICC and chair of the Department of Biochemistry in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, a department with 75 faculty. Finally, Dr. Cortez also serves on the editorial and advisory boards of journals including Science Advances and Cell Reports.