Molecular Biology Program
The Agnel Sfeir Lab
Research

Chromosomes are the fundamental structural units of our genome. The Sfeir lab seeks to understand basic chromosome biology and how their mismanagement manifests in disease. Our research is focused on three major areas: telomere maintenance, nuclear DNA repair, and mitochondrial DNA replication and repair. A number of projects in the lab address fundamental questions related to telomere maintenance and how telomere dysfunction impacts cancer. In addition, we study an ancient yet error-prone DNA repair pathway, termed micro-homology mediated end-joining, and focus on polymerase theta, a key enzyme underlying mutagenic repair. Lastly, we investigate replication and repair of mitochondrial genomes and explore mitochondrial-nuclear crosstalk in response to mitochondrial DNA stress.
Research Projects


Featured News

Publications
Tigano M, Vargas DC, Fu Y, Tremblay-Belzile S, and Sfeir A*. (2021) Nuclear sensing of mitochondrial DNA breaks enhances immune surveillance. Nature. Feb 24; online.
Mateos-GomezPA, GongF, NairN, MillerKM, Lazzerini-DenchiE, SfeirA*. (2015) Mammalian Polymerase Theta Promotes Alternative-NHEJ and Suppresses Recombination. Nature. Feb 12;518(7538):254-7.
People

Agnel Sfeir, PhD
PaineWebber Chair in Cancer Genetics
- The Sfeir Lab investigates pathways that ensure genome fidelity and plasticity.
- PhD, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Texas (2006)
- Post-Doc, The Rockefeller University, New York (2011)
Members

- MD, Columbia University (2019)
- PhD, Columbia University (2018)

- PhD, Duke University School of Medicine (2018)
- MD, Duke University School of Medicine (2019)

- Ph.D. - Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN (2022)

- Post-Doc, The Rockefeller University (1995)
- PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1987)

- B.S. University of Texas - Austin, Texas - 2020

Research Assistant

BCMB Student

Radiation Oncology Fellow

Post-Doc

BCMB Student

Radiation Oncology Fellow

PhD Student

Research Fellow

Senior Research Scientist

SKI Lead Admin

Post-Doc

Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Student

Research Technician

BCMB Student
- BSc, Tufts university, MA (2016)
- MSc, Hunter college, NY (2018)

- PhD, Columbia University Medical Center, NY (2018)

- PhD, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada (2018)
- New York University, NY (Current)
Lab Alumni

MSTP Student

Student
Research Assistant

Research Technician

Post-Doc

Visiting Investigator

Post-Doc
Intern
Lab Affiliations
Achievements
- Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator Award
- Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award
- V-Foundation Scholar
- Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research
- NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
Read more
- The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Award
- Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators
- Mallinckrodt Scholar Award
Lab News & Events
Upcoming event
The Dynamics of Gene Expression Across the Cell, From the Nucleus to Mitochondria
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Rockefeller Research Laboratories
430 East 67th Street
Room RRL-116
New York, NY 10065
Disclosures
Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.
MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.
Agnel Sfeir discloses the following relationships and financial interests:
-
Repare Therapeutics
Intellectual Property Rights; Ownership / Equity Interests; Provision of Services
The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.
This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2021 through disclosure submission in spring 2022). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.
Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].