Peter Baumann

Biography

Then he set out to broaden his skills in a post-doctoral fellowship. Searching for a compelling new area of biology, Baumann heard an inspiring talk by Joachim Lingner, a researcher in the University of Colorado laboratory of Nobel Laureate Tom Cech. For years, scientists had known that the ends of every chromosome are protected by strings of repetitive DNA known as telomeres. Researchers also knew that copying the telomeric DNA when cells divide required a special enzyme named telomerase. But they’d been unable to find the gene for the enzyme. Now, Lingner reported, success was in sight. “It was very new and exciting,” Baumann recalls. “People had been stuck for so long and now this lab was close to having the gene in hand.” Baumann snared a spot in Cech’s lab, and also won a Wellcome Prize Traveling Research Fellowship to fund his work. “The stars aligned perfectly for me to join Tom’s lab,” Baumann says.

Research Interest

Our laboratory studies various aspects of chromosome biology including the maintenance of chromosome ends, the repair of DNA breaks and the inheritance of genetic information in unisexual vertebrate species. We employ diverse approaches ranging from molecular genetics and biochemistry to advanced microscopy and genomics to dissect fundamental biological processes. A selection of current projects is described below. More information can be found on our laboratory website.