Frank Jirik

Professor

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Medicine

MD, FRCPC


Contact information

Phone

Office: 403-220-8666

Web presence

PubMed

Location

Office : HRIC3A25

Preferred method of communication

ADMIN ASSISTANT

Cassandra McLaughlin

Email: cpugh@ucalgary.ca

Office: 403-210-9710


Research and teaching

Research areas

  • Mouse models of cancer: preclinical and transgenic.

Biography

Past work has involved the generation and phenotypic analysis of a various genes in transgenic mice, as well as his work with many different models of human disease. His studies have cut across many disciplines and have largely focussed on the function of individual genes and gene-gene interactions in models of musculoskeletal disease, arthritis, neoplasia (e.g. models of breast cancer cell line induced osteolytic damage in a mouse model of breast cancer, prostate cancer, as well as colorectal and lung cancer), microCT imaging of murine bones, bioluminescence imaging of cancers, inflammatory bowel disease models, prion gene function, an autoinflammatory disease of children, and the phenotypic effects of selenoprotein deficiency. He has a longstanding interest in DNA repair and mutagenesis as demonstrated by publications involving mice lacking genes involved in Fanconi anemia, repair of alkylated lesions, as well as DNA mismatch repair. Recently, in collaboration with Dr. M. Weinfeld (U of Alberta), we generated mice allowing conditional mutations of polynucleotide kinase-phosphatase (PNKP).