Paras Gaur is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar and his research is focused on the mechanisms of DNA Replication/Repair, Genomic Instability, and Cancer.

Paras have extensive expertise in protein purification, high-throughput screening, and assay development across both biochemical (Ubiquitination, PARylation) and cutting-edge single-molecule biophysics techniques.

He earned his Ph.D. as a prestigious Stipendium Hungaricum Scholar at the Biological Research Center in Hungary. During his graduate training under Dr. Lajos Haracska, he focused on developing high-throughput assays to identify small-molecule modulators of PCNA ubiquitination, a critical cellular decision-making process in DNA synthesis, resulting in four shared/co-shared first-author publications.

His current research is supported by a Susan G. Komen Career Transition Award, which he utilizes to investigate novel therapeutic strategies for breast cancer.

Outside the lab, Paras enjoys traveling, cooking, plant keeping, and aquarium maintenance.

The overall goal of Paras's work is to bridge fundamental molecular biology with precision oncology by investigating the role of DNA structure in cancer progression.

Project Focus: G-quadruplex (G4) Metabolism in Cancer

Cancer is characterized by profound genomic instability. Paras's research is centered on G-quadruplexes (G4s), which are non-canonical DNA structures that form in the human genome and are strongly associated with regulating oncogenes, particularly across various breast cancer subtypes.

Molecular Mechanism Elucidation: He aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms governing G4 DNA structure maintenance and resolution.

Single-Molecule Analysis: He employs state-of-the-art single-molecule techniques; specifically, smTIRFM (single-molecule Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy) and Mass Photometry (MP) to dissect the real-time dynamics of G4 unwinding and replication at the single-molecule level.

Translational Impact: By uncovering how dysregulated G4 biology contributes to tumorigenesis and therapy resistance, his work seeks to identify novel therapeutic targets for breast cancer treatment.