Betsy M. Sutherland

Biology Department, 463
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, NY 11973-5000

tel: (631) 344-3380
fax: (631) 344-3407
bms@bnl.gov

The Group:
William Abele 344-3293
Paula L. Bennett 344-3293
Pankaj Chaudhary 344-3114
Prolay Das 344-3114
James Jardine 344-3293
Deborah Keszenman 344-3648
Mario Moscariello 344-3114
Mamta Naidu 344-3639
Leah Selva 344-3536
Viktorie Stisova 344-3925
Stefan Tafrov 344-3605

Betsy Sutherland heads the Biology Department’s User Support Team for the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at BNL. The NSRL project, carried out jointly with BNL’s Collider-Accelerator and Medical Departments, provides the only source in the US of high energy heavy charged particles, used in assessing the effects of space radiation on biological systems, materials and instruments. The Biology Department NSRL support team consists of eight scientific, professional and administrative staffers. They provide scientific and facilities support to over 200 User groups from all over the world, and collaborate in development and maintenance of the NSRL. Betsy Sutherland also chairs the BNL Scientific Advisory Committee for Radiation Research, advisory to NASA and to the BNL Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear and Particle Physics on research at the NSRL.

Research Interests:

We study DNA damage and repair in mammalian cells and tissues and in higher plants. Major areas of interest are:

  1. DNA damage induced by low doses and dose rates of ionizing radiation, and repair of that damage in normal human tissue and in repair-deficient and repair enzyme-overproducing cells.

    This research is supported jointly by the Low Dose Research Program from the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the Human Research Program of NASA.

  2. Characterizing damages to DNA produced by space radiation that astronauts would encounter on the moon or during Mars missions, repair of that damage and consequences of failure or misrepair for production of human cell transformation.

    This part of our research is supported by the Human Research Program of NASA.

  3. Developing possible countermeasures to biological damage induced by space radiation, both by decreasing the initial damage and potentially by increasing repair of such damage.

    This research is supported by the National Space Biomedical Institute.

References:
Bennett P., Ishchenko A.A., Laval J., Paap B. and Sutherland B.M.
Endogenous DNA damage clusters in human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.
Free Radical Biology & Medicine, 45(9):1352-1359 (2008).  PubMed
Paap B., Wilson D.M 3rd. and Sutherland B.M.
Human abasic endonuclease action on multilesion abasic clusters: Implications for radiation-induced biological damage.
Nucleic Acids Research 36(8): 2717-2727 (2008).  PubMed
Hada M., and Sutherland B.M.
Spectrum of complex DNA damages depends on the incident radiation.
Radiat Res 165(2), 223-230 (2006).  PubMed
Paul S., Gros L., Laval J. and Sutherland B.M..
Expression of the E. coli fpg protein in CHO cells lowers endogenous oxypurine clustered damage levels and decreases accumulation of endogenous Hprt mutations.
Environ Mol Mutagen 47(5), 311-319 (2006).  PubMed
Sutherland B.M.
Medical And Environmental Effects Of UV Radiation.
in: Environmental UV Radiation: Impact on Ecosystems and Human Health and Predictive Models (F. Ghetti, G.C. a J.F.B. edt.)
Springer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 57, pp 39-50 (2006).
Sutherland B.M.
Genetic and Molecular Analysis of DNA Damage Repair and Tolerance Pathways.
in: NATO Science Series, IV., Earth and Environmental Sciences (F. Ghetti, G.C. a. J.F.B. edt.)
Springer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 57, pp 109-120 (2006).
Zhou G., Bennett P.V., Cutter N.C. and Sutherland B.M.
Proton-HZE particle sequential dual beam exposures increase anchorage-independent growth frequencies in primary human fibroblasts.
Radiat Res 166(3), 488-494 (2006).  PubMed
Bennett P.V., Cuomo N.L., Paul S., Tafrov S.T. and Sutherland B.M.
Endogenous DNA damage clusters in human skin, 3-D model, and cultured skin cells.
Free Radic Biol Med 39(6), 832-839 (2005).  PubMed  Full Text
Hidema J., Teranishi M., Iwamatsu Y., Hirouchi T., Ueda T., Sato T., Burr B., Sutherland B.M., Yamamoto K. and Kumagai T.
Spontaneously occurring mutations in the cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer photolyase gene cause different sensitivities to ultraviolet-B in rice.
Plant J 43(1), 57-67 (2005).  PubMed
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V. and Sutherland J.C.
DNA Damage Quantitation by Alkaline Gel Electrophoresis.
in: Molecular Biology Methods: DNA Repair, 2nd ed (Henderson, D., edt.)
Humana: New York, 314, pp 251-273 (2005).
Sutherland B.M., Cuomo N.C. and Bennett P.V.
Induction of anchorage-independent growth in primary human cells exposed to protons or HZE ions separately or in dual exposures.
Radiat Res 164(4), 493-496 (2005).  PubMed
Bennett P.V., Cintron N.S., Gros L., Laval J. and Sutherland B.M.
Are endogenous clustered DNA damages induced in human cells?
Free Radic Biol Med 37(4), 488-99 (2004).  PubMed
Georgakilas A.G., Bennett P.V., Wilson D.M. 3rd, and Sutherland B.M.
Processing of bistranded abasic DNA clusters in gamma-irradiated human hematopoietic cells.
Nucleic Acids Res 32(18), 5609-20 (2004).  PubMed  Full Text
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Hada M., and Premakumar I.
Induction of DNA Damage Clusters by Space Radiation.
Radiat Res, In press (2004).
Filippova E.M., Monteleone D.C., Trunk J.G., Sutherland B.M., Quake S.R and Sutherland J.C.
Quantifying Damage to Double Stranded DNA by Single Molecule Laser Fluorescence Sizing.
Biophys J 84, 1281-1290 (2003).
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Cintron N.S., Guida P. and Laval J.
Low levels of endogenous oxidative damage cluster levels in unirradiated viral and human DNAs.
Free Radic Biol Med 35(5), 495-503 (2003).  PubMed
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Cintron-Torres N.S., Hada M., Trunk J., Monteleone D.C., Sutherland J.C., Laval J., Stanislaus M. and Gewirtz A.
Clustered DNA damages induced in human hematopoietic cells by low doses of ionizing radiation.
J Radiat Res 43, S149-S152 (2003).  PubMed
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Georgakilas A.G. and Sutherland J.C.
Evaluation of number average length analysis in quantifying double strand breaks in genomic DNAs.
Biochemistry 42(11), 3375-84 (2003).  PubMed
Sutherland B.M., Georgakilas A.G., Bennett P.V., Laval J. and Sutherland J.C.
Quantifying clustered DNA damage induction and repair by gel electrophoresis, electronic imaging and number average length analysis.
Mutat Res 531(1-2), 93-107 (2003).  PubMed
Georgakilas A.G., Bennett P.V. and Sutherland B.M.
High efficiency detection of bi-stranded abasic clusters in gamma-irradiated DNA by putrescine.
Nucl Acids Res 30(13), 2800-2808 (2002).   PubMed  Full Text
Song J.M., Milligan J.R. and Sutherland B.M.
Bistranded oxidized purine damage clusters: induced in DNA by long wavelength ultraviolet (290-400 nm) radiation?
Biochemistry 41(27), 8683-8688 (2002).   PubMed
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Sutherland J.C. and Laval J.
Clustered DNA damages induced by x-rays in human cells.
Radiat Res 157(6), 611-616 (2002).   PubMed
Bennett P.V., Hada M., Hidema J., Lepre A.M., Pope L.C., Quaite F.E., Sullivan J.H., Takayanagi S., Sutherland J.C. and Sutherland B.M.
Isolation of high molecular length DNA: alfalfa, pea, rice, sorghum, soybean and spinach.
Crop Science 41, 167-172 (2001).
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Saparbaev M., Sutherland J.C. and Laval J.
Clustered DNA damages as dosemeters for ionising radiation exposure and biological responses.
Radiat Prot Dosimetry 97(1), 33-38 (2001).   PubMed
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Weinert E., Sidorkina O. and Laval J.
Frequencies and relative levels of clustered damages in DNA exposed to gamma rays in radioquenching vs nonradioquenching conditions.
Environ Mol Mutagen 38(2-3), 159-165 (2001).   PubMed
Sutherland J.C., Monteleone D.C., Trunk J.G., Bennett P.V. and Sutherland B.M.
Quantifying DNA damage by gel electrophoresis, electronic imaging and number average length analysis.
Electrophoresis 22(5), 843-854 (2001).   PubMed
Hidema J., Kumagai T. and Sutherland B.M.
UV radiation-sensitive norin 1 rice contains defective cyclobutyl pyrimidine dimer photolyase.
Plant Cell 12(9), 1569-1578 (2000).   PubMed   Full Text
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Sidorkina O. and Laval J.
Clustered DNA damages induced in isolated DNA and in human cells by low doses of ionizing radiation
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97, 103-108 (2000).   PubMed   Full Text
Sutherland B.M., Bennett P.V., Sidorkina O. and Laval J.
Clustered damages and total lesions induced in DNA by ionizing radiation: oxidized bases and strand breaks.
Biochemistry 39(27), 8026-8031 (2000).   PubMed
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