Breadcrumb

Yves  Pommier, M.D., Ph.D.

Yves Pommier, M.D., Ph.D.

  • Center for Cancer Research
  • National Cancer Institute
  • Building 37, Room 5068
  • Bethesda, MD 20892-4255
  • 240-760-6142
  • pommier@nih.gov
NIH Scientist Emeritus
Developmental Therapeutics Branch

RESEARCH SUMMARY

Dr. Yves Pommier left CCR in July 2025.

Dr. Pommier was a leader in DNA topoisomerase biology and biochemistry, and their cancer relevance. He revealed the interfacial inhibition paradigm based on molecular mechanisms of topoisomerase inhibitors, and championed its broad relevance for molecular pharmacology and drug discovery. He discovered the indenoisoquinolines as novel Top1 inhibitors, which were in clinical development, and the mitochondrial topoisomerase gene, TOP1mt. To understand the determinants of response to topoisomerase inhibitors, he studied the repair pathway centered on tyrosyl-DNA-phosphodiesterases (TDP1 and TDP2) and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARP).

As Chief, Dr. Pommier oversaw the Branch’s clinical/translational research program, which emphasized new approaches to cancer treatments targeting DNA, epigenetic and chromatin, and connected biomarkers.

Publications

Selected Recent Publications

Exonuclease VII repairs quinolone-induced damage by resolving DNA gyrase cleavage complexes.

Huang, S.-y.N., Michaels, S.A., Mitchell, B.B., Majdalani, N., Vanden Broeck, A., Canela, A., Tse-Dinh, Y.-C., Lamour, V., and Pommier Y.
Science Advances . 7(10): eabe0384, 2021. [ Journal Article ]

SLFN11 promotes CDT1 degradation by CUL4 in response to replicative DNA damage, while its absence leads to synthetic lethality with ATR/CHK1 inhibitors.

Jo, U., Murai, Y., Chakka, S., Chen, L., Cheng, K., Murai, J., Saha, L.K., Miller Jenkins, L.M., and Pommier
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118: e2015654118, 2021. [ Journal Article ]

CellMiner Cross-Database (CellMinerCDB) version 1.2: Exploration of patient-derived cancer cell line pharmacogenomics.

Luna, A., Elloumi, F., Varma, S., Wang, Y., Rajapakse, V.N., Aladjem, M.I., Robert, J., Sander, C., Pommier, Y., and Reinhold,W.C.
Nucleic Acids Res. 49(D1): D1083-D1093, 2021. [ Journal Article ]

Replication-dependent cytotoxicity and Spartan-mediated repair of trapped PARP1–DNA complexes.

Saha, L.K., Murai, Y., Saha, S., Jo, U., Tsuda, M., Takeda, S., and Pommier, Y.
Nucleic Acids Research.. 10: 1093/nar/gkab777, 2021. [ Journal Article ]

PARylation prevents the proteasomal degradation of topoisomerase I DNA-protein crosslinks and induces their deubiquitylation.

Sun, Y., Chen, J., Huang, S.N., Su, Y.P., Wang, W., Agama, K., Saha, S., Jenkins, L.M., Pascal, J.M., and Pommier, Y.
Nat Commun. 12(1): 5010., 2021. [ Journal Article ]