Kirk L West, PhD

Research Program: Cancer Biology Faculty Rank: Postdoctoral Fellow Campus: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College: College of Medicine Department: Radiation Oncology

Cancer Research Interest

• Disease Site Focus: No Specific Disease Site
• Research Focus Area: Carcinogenesis, Treatment
• Type of Research: Basic
• Research Keywords: DNA damage repair, Post-translation modification, Kinases, Mass spectrometry
• Research Interest Statement: My research interests including using proteomics and biochemical techniques to understand the role of the understudied kinases, TLK1 and TLK2, in the DNA damage response. The goal of this work is to better understand how the cell regulates DNA damage repair pathway choice and hopefully lead to more effective cancer therapies.

Contact Information

• Email Address: KWEST@UAMS.EDU
• Profiles Research Networking Software: View Profile

Active Grants

• American Cancer Society, Inc. – PF-21-083-01-DMC
  “Defining the role of LC8-TLK1/2 axis in the DNA re”
  Principal Investigator
  01/01/22 – 12/31/24
• NIH/Nat. Cancer Institute – 1R01CA244261
  “Mechanistic characterization of the cell cycle-dep”
  Co-Investigator
  03/01/21 – 02/28/27
• American Cancer Society, Inc. – RSG-20-131-01-DMC
  “Mechanistic characterization ”
  Co-Investigator
  01/01/21 – 12/31/24

Publications

• Dong C, West KL, Tan XY, [et al.]. Screen identifies DYRK1B network as mediator of transcription repression on damaged chromatin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2020 117(29):17019-17030. PMID: 32611815. PMCID: PMC7382216.
• Kelliher JL, West KL, Gong Q, Leung JWC. Histone H2A variants alpha1-extension helix directs RNF168-mediated ubiquitination. Nature communications. 2020 11(1):2462. PMID: 32424115. PMCID: PMC7235047.
• West KL, Kelliher JL, Xu Z, [et al.]. LC8/DYNLL1 is a 53BP1 effector and regulates checkpoint activation. Nucleic acids research. 2019 47(12):6236-6249. PMID: 30982887. PMCID: PMC6614850.
• Gao J, Byrd AK, Zybailov BL, [et al., including West KL]. DEAD-box RNA helicases Dbp2, Ded1 and Mss116 bind to G-quadruplex nucleic acids and destabilize G-quadruplex RNA. Chemical communications (Cambridge, England). 2019 55(31):4467-4470. PMID: 30855040. PMCID: PMC6459694.
• Shields BD, Koss B, Taylor EM, [et al., including West KL]. Loss of E-Cadherin Inhibits CD103 Antitumor Activity and Reduces Checkpoint Blockade Responsiveness in Melanoma. Cancer research. 2019 79(6):1113-1123. PMID: 30674537. PMCID: PMC6420873.
• West KL, Byrum SD, Mackintosh SG, [et al.]. Proteomic characterization of the arsenic response locus in S. cerevisiae. Epigenetics. 2019 14(2):130-145. PMID: 30739529. PMCID: PMC6557609.
• Saka E, Harrison BJ, West K, [et al.]. Framework for reanalysis of publicly available Affymetrix® GeneChip® data sets based on functional regions of interest. BMC genomics. 2017 18(Suppl 10):875. PMID: 29244006. PMCID: PMC5731501.
• Gilbert KM, Blossom SJ, Reisfeld B, [et al., including West K]. Trichloroethylene-induced alterations in DNA methylation were enriched in polycomb protein binding sites in effector/memory CD4+ T cells. Environmental epigenetics. 2017 3(3). PMID: 29129997. PMCID: PMC5676456.
• Gilbert KM, Blossom SJ, Erickson SW, [et al., including West K]. Chronic exposure to trichloroethylene increases DNA methylation of the Ifng promoter in CD4+ T cells. Toxicology letters. 2016 260:1-7. PMID: 27553676. PMCID: PMC5065104.