Albert J. Fornace Jr. (born 1949) is a professor in the departments of Oncology, Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology, and Radiation Medicine at Georgetown University.
This has focused on understanding how cells and organisms respond to genotoxic (DNA damaging) agents, such as radiation, that can cause cancer – as well as being used for its treatment.
[3] His laboratory went on to show that many of these genes have roles in growth control,[4] DNA repair,[5] and resistance to cancer,[6] and he has had made important contributions in the characterization of pathways (such as TP53) involved in these critical cellular processes.
Since 2010, he has directed a NASA Specialized Center of Research to assess cancer risk during long-term space missions.
[13] While in Dr. Jerry Crabtree’s laboratory, he elucidated a type of common regional genetic duplication event that occurs over an evolutionary time scale in humans.