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Professor Stephen Elledge has a long-standing interest in understanding the proteins that sense and respond to DNA damage and regulate the cell division cycle and cancer and uncovered what is now known as the DNA Damage Response. He along with Dr. Wade Harper discovered the two largest families of E3 ubiquitin ligases, the CRL family initiating with the Skp1-Cul1-F-box E3 ligase family, and the role of RING domain E3 ligases.  Dr. Elledge has developed a number of genetic technologies that promote the use of genetics in mammalian systems including shRNA screening methods and ORF libraries that he has used to probe cancer biology leading to theories about how aneuploidy drives cancer.  More recently Dr. Elledge has developed immunological methods such as VirScan that allow the genome-wide detection of antiviral antibodies from a single drop of patient blood to determine the history of viral exposure. 

The Elledge lab will contribute to the Grand Challenge project with expertise in understanding how cells of different origins show profound differences in their ability to respond to proliferation signals.