2025

  • Honda, M., Razzaghi, M., Gaur, P., Malacaria, E., Di Biagi, L., Aiello, F.A., Paintsil, E., Stanfield, A., Deppe, B.J., Gakhar, L., Schniker, N., Spies, M.A., Pichierri, P., Spies, M.
    A double-ring of human RAD52 remodels replication forks restricting fork reversal. Nature, May 2025; 641(8062):512-519. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08753-1.
    PDB: 8KTQ | EMDB: EMD-41537, EMD-42065, EMD-42066, EMD-42069
  • Singhania, M., Sho, S., Fath, M.A., Sanchez, A., Pulliam, C.F., Allen, B.G., Buettner, G.R., Goswami, P., Spies, M., Petronek, M.S., Spitz, D.R.
    Iron-oxide nanoparticles selectively enhance the toxicity of pharmacological ascorbate through hydrogen peroxide-dependent DNA damage in NSCLC. Free Radic Biol Med, Sep 2025; 241:32-41. doi:10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2025.09.013.

2024

  • Granger, S.L., Sharma, R., Kaushik, V., Razzaghi, M., Honda, M., Gaur, P., Bhat, D.S., Wlodarski, M., Antony, E., Spies, M.
    Human RPA-telomeric ssDNA-hnRNPA1 complex is a key intermediate in the RPA/POT1 exchange at telomeres. Nucleic Acids Res, Nov 2024; 52(20):12422-12437. doi:10.1093/nar/gkae834.
  • Srivastava, D., Gowribidanur-Chinnaswamy, P., Gaur, P., Spies, M., Swaroop, A., Artemyev, N.O.
    Molecular basis of CRX/DNA recognition and stoichiometry at the Ret4 response element. Structure, Oct 2024; 32(10):1751-1759.e4. doi:10.1016/j.str.2024.07.004.
  • Kuppa, S., Caldwell, C.C., Spies, M., Antony, E.
    Generation of site-specifically labelled fluorescent human XPA to investigate DNA binding dynamics during nucleotide excision repair. Methods, Apr 2024; 224:47-53. doi:10.1016/j.ymeth.2024.02.006.
  • Hengel, S.R., Oppenheimer, K., Smith, C., Schlaich, M.A., Rein, H.L., Martino, J., Darrah, K., Ezekwenna, O., Burton, K., Van Houten, B., Spies, M., Bernstein, K.A.
    The human Shu complex promotes RAD51 activity by modulating RPA dynamics on ssDNA. Nature Communications, Aug 2024; 15(1):7197. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-51595-0.

2023

  • Gaur, P., Bain, F.E., Granger, S.L., Spies, M.
    Single-molecule analysis of the improved variants of the G-quadruplex recognition protein G4P. Int J Mol Sci, 2023; 24(12). doi:10.3390/ijms241210274. PMID: 37373425; PMCID: PMC10299155.
  • Ling, J.A., Glidenberg, M.S., Honda, M., Kondratick, C.M., Spies, M., Washington, M.T.
    Fork-Remodeling Helicase Rad5 Preferentially Reverses Replication Forks with Gaps in the Leading Strand. J Mol Biol, Feb 2023; 435(4):167946. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2023.167946.
  • Fairlamb, M.S., Spies, M., Washington, M.T., Freudenthal, B.D.
    Visualizing the coordination of APE1 and DNA Polymerase β during Base Excision Repair. JBC, Mar 2023; 299(5):104636. doi:10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104636.
  • Bhat, D.S., Malacaria, E., Di Biagi, L., Razzaghi, M., Honda, M., Hobbs, K.F., Hengel, S.R., Pichierri, P., Spies, M.A., Spies, M.
    Therapeutic Disruption of RAD52-ssDNA Complexation via Novel Drug-Like Inhibitors. NAR Cancer, Jun 2023; 5(2):zcad018. doi:10.1093/narcan/zcad018.
  • Gall-Duncan, T., Luo, J., Jurkovic, C.-M., Fischer, L.A., Fujita, K., ... Spies, M., Pearson, C.E.
    Antagonistic roles of canonical and alternative-RPA in disease-associated tandem CAG repeat instability. Cell, Oct 2023; doi:10.1016/j.cell.2023.09.008.
  • Hong, L., Zhao, Y., Braden, D.C., Skoko, J.J., ... Spies, M., Neumann, C.A.
    Small molecule nitroalkenes inhibit RAD51-mediated homologous recombination and amplify triple-negative breast cancer cell killing by DNA-directed therapies. Redox Biol, Oct 2023; 66:102856. doi:10.1016/j.redox.2023.102856.
  • Sharma, R., Oak, N., Chen, W., Gogal, R., ... Spies, M., Wlodarski, M.W.
    Germline landscape of RPA1, RPA2 and RPA3 mutations in pediatric malignancies: identification of RPA1 as a novel cancer candidate gene. Front Oncol, Oct 2023; 13:1229507. doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1229507.
  • Bayanbold, K., Singhania, M., Fath, M.A., ... Spies, M., Spitz, D.R.
    Depletion of Labile Iron Induces Replication Stress and Enhances Responses to Chemoradiation in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Antioxidants, Nov 2023; 12(11):2005. doi:10.3390/antiox12112005.

2022

  • Sharma, R., Sahoo, S.S., Honda, M., Granger, S.L., Goodings, C., Saintomé, C., Sanchez, L., Künstner, A., Busch, H., Beier, F., … Wlodarski, M., Spies, M.
    Gain-of-Function Mutations in RPA1 Cause a Syndrome with Short Telomeres and Somatic Genetic Rescue. Blood, Feb 2022; 139(7):1039-1051. doi:10.1182/blood.2021014533.
  • Skoko, J., Cao, J., Gaboriau, D., Alparslan Asan, M.A., Hong, L., Paulsen, C.E., Ma, H., Liu, Y., Wu, H., Furdui, C.M., Manevich, Y., Morrison, C.G., Brown, E.T., Normolle, D., Spies, M., Spies, M.A., Carroll, K., Neumann, C.A.
    Redox regulation of RAD51 Cys319 and homologous recombination by peroxiredoxin 1. Redox Biol, Aug 2022; 56:102443. doi:10.1016/j.redox.2022.102443.
  • Bhat, D.S., Spies, M.A., Spies, M.
    A moving target for drug discovery: Structure activity relationship and many genome destabilizing functions of the RAD52 protein. DNA Repair, Dec 2022; 120:103421. doi:10.1016/j.dnarep.2022.103421.

2021

  • Fairlamb, M.S., Whitaker, A.M., Bain, F.E., Spies, M., Freudenthal, B.D.
    Construction of a Three-Color Prism-Based TIRF Microscope to Study the Interactions and Dynamics of Macromolecules. Biology, Jun 2021; 10(7):571. doi:10.3390/biology10070571.
  • Spies, M.
    Getting swept off your toeholds: Single-molecule DNA fission analysis offers glimpse into kinetics of branch migration. Biophys J, Jun 2021; 120(12):2367-2369. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2021.05.013.
  • Tibbs, J., Ghoneim, M., Caldwell, C.C., Buzynski, T., Bowie, W., Boehm, E.M., Washington, M.T., Tabei, S.M.A., Spies, M.
    KERA: Analysis Tool for Multi-Process, Multi-State Single-Molecule Data. Nucleic Acids Res, May 2021; 49(9):e53. doi:10.1093/nar/gkab148.
  • Kondratick, C.M., Washington, M.T., Spies, M.
    Making choices: DNA replication fork recovery mechanisms. Semin Cell Dev Biol, May 2021; 113:27-37. doi:10.1016/j.semcdb.2021.05.002.

2020

  • Stefanovie, B., Hengel, S.R., Mlcouskova, J., Lin, Y.-L., Prochazkova, J., Spirek, M., Nikulenkov, F., Nemecek, D., Koch, B.G., Bain, F.E., Yu, L., Pasero, P., Spies, M., Krejci, L.
    DSS1 interacts and stimulates RAD52 to promote DSB repair and fork stability. Nucleic Acids Res, Jan 2020; 48(2):694-708. doi:10.1093/nar/gkz1143.
  • Subramanyam, S., Spies, M.
    RAD51 discrimination between single- and double-strand DNA: a matter of flexibility and enthalpy. EMBO J, Feb 2020; 39:e104547. doi:10.15252/embj.2019104547.
  • Malacaria, E., Honda, M., Franchitto, A., Spies, M., Pichierri, P.
    Physiological and pathological roles of RAD52 at DNA replication forks. Cancers, Feb 2020; 12(2). doi:10.3390/cancers12020245.
  • Caldwell, C.C., Spies, M.
    Dynamic Elements of Replication Protein A at the Crossroads of DNA Replication, Recombination, and Repair. Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol, Oct 2020; 55(5):482-507. doi:10.1080/10409238.2020.1812030.

2019

  • Pokhrel, N., Caldwell, C.C., Corless, E.I., Tillison, E.A., Tibbs, J., Jocic, N., Tabei, S.M.A., Wold, M.S., Spies, M., Antony, E.
    Dynamics and Selective Remodeling of the DNA Binding Domains of RPA. Nat Struct Mol Biol, 2019; 26:129-136. doi:10.1038/s41594-019-0181-1.
  • Malacaria, E., Pugliese, G.M., Honda, M., Marabitti, V., Aiello, F.A., Spies, M., Franchitto, A., Pichierri, P.
    RAD52 prevents excessive replication fork reversal and protects from nascent strand degradation. Nat Commun, 2019; 10(1):1412. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09323-3.

2018

  • Yates, L.A., Aramayo, R.J., Pokhrel, N., Caldwell, C.C., Kaplan, J.A., Perera, R.L., Spies, M., Antony, E., Zhang, X.
    A structural and dynamic model for the assembly of Replication Protein A on single-stranded DNA. Nat Commun, 2018; 9(1):5447. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07833-0.

2017

  • Spies, M.
    A Time for Promiscuity in a Eukaryotic Recombinase. J Biol Chem, 2017; 292(26):11136-11137. doi:10.1074/jbc.H117.791137.
  • Spies, M., Smith, B.O.
    Protein-nucleic acids interactions: new ways of connecting structure, dynamics and function. Biophys Rev, 2017; 9(4):289–291. doi:10.1007/s12551-017-0318-8.
  • Hengel, S.R., Spies, M.A., Spies, M.
    Small molecule inhibitors targeting DNA repair and DNA repair deficiency in research and cancer therapy. Cell Chem Biol, Sep 2017; 24(9):1101-1119. doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.08.021.
  • Xu, Z., Gakhar, L., Bain, F.E., Spies, M., Fuentes, E.J.
    Tiam1 Auto-inhibition by the N-terminal PHn-CC-Ex Domain. J Biol Chem, Oct 2017; 292(43):17777-17793. doi:10.1074/jbc.M117.810101.
  • Caldwell, C.C., Spies, M.
    Helicase SPRNTing through the nanopore. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Nov 2017; 114(45):11809-11811. doi:10.1073/pnas.1716645114.

Preprints & Manuscripts in Review

2025
  • Mo, J., Borcherding, N., Jo, S., Tithi, T.I., Cho, E., Cash, C.E., Honda, M., Wang, L., Ahmed, K.K., Weigel, R., Spies, M., Kolb, R., Zhang, W.
    Contrasting roles of different mismatch repair proteins in basal-like breast cancer. bioRxiv, 2023. doi:10.1101/2023.07.20.549745. PMID: 37745359.
  • Alshareedah, I., Pangeni, S., Dewan, P.A., Honda, M., Liao, T.-W., Spies, M., Ha, T.
    The human RAD52 complex undergoes phase separation and facilitates bundling and end-to-end tethering of RAD51 presynaptic filaments. bioRxiv, 2024. doi:10.1101/2024.12.09.627445. (Nucleic Acids Res, second revision).
  • Di Biagi, L., Malacaria, E., Aiello, F.A., Honda, M., Valenzisi, P., Marozzi, G., Spies, M., Franchitto, A., Pichierri, P.
    RAD52 prevents accumulation of Polα-dependent replication gaps at perturbed replication forks in human cells. bioRxiv, 2023. doi:10.1101/2023.04.12.536536. PMID: 37090680. (Nature Communications, in revision).
  • Gaur, P., Bain, F.E., Meah, R., Spies, M.
    Single-molecule analysis of PARP1-G-quadruplex interaction. bioRxiv, 2024. doi:10.1101/2025.01.06.631587. PMID: 39829912.
  • Benmoussa, A., Koland, P.J., Polyak, J., Razzaghi, M., Spies, M.
    Structure of the RPA4-RPA3 complex explains the decreased slipped-out DNA melting by the human alternative RPA. (In preparation for special collection on DNA repeat expansion diseases in NAR Molecular Medicine).

Journal Cover for April 15th issue; M. Spies original art

JMB cover

Ling, J.A., Glidenberg, M.S., Honda, M., Kondratick, C.M., Spies, M., Washington, M.T.‡, Fork-Remodeling Helicase Rad5 Preferentially Reverses Replication Forks with Gaps in the Leading Strand. 2023, J. Mol. Biol. Feb 28;435(4):167946. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2023.167946. Epub 2023 Jan 6. [PMID: 36623584, PMC9915103]