Robert L. Eoff profile photo

Robert L. Eoff

Federal Grant PI High Impact

Professor

Last publication 2025 Last refreshed 2026-05-22

faculty

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, College of Medicine

rleoff@uams.edu

30 h-index 120 pubs 2,685 cited

Biography and Research Information

OverviewAI-generated summary

Robert L. Eoff's research focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of DNA replication and their relationship to human health, particularly in the context of cancer. His work investigates DNA damage tolerance pathways, aiming to elucidate how these processes function under normal conditions and how they are altered during tumorigenesis or with aging.

Eoff has expertise in biochemical and biophysical analyses of enzymes, structural biology utilizing X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling, and mass spectrometry. He has contributed to solving thirty-four crystal structures submitted to the Protein Data Bank, with seventeen as first author. His laboratory has determined five crystal structures since his arrival at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He maintains an active collaboration with the Northeastern Collaborative Access Team (NE-CAT) at the Advanced Photon Source for data collection.

His federally funded research includes a National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant for the Center for Molecular Interactions in Cancer (CMIC), totaling $2,065,501, and a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for "Replication of G-quadruplex DNA by translesion polymerases," totaling $1,100,000. Eoff is recognized as a high-impact researcher and has an h-index of 30 with 120 publications and 2,657 citations. He collaborates with several researchers at UAMS, including Megan R. Reed, Amit Ketkar, Analiz Rodriguez, and Leena Maddukuri.

Research Overview

The research I pursue is focused on DNA replication and seeks to provide fundamental insights into how these mechanisms are related to human health, especially cancer. I have expertise in a number of areas pertinent to the current application including: biochemical/biophysical analysis of enzymes, structural biology (X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling techniques), mass spectrometry and genomic instability in cancer. In addition to in silico modeling approaches, I have been involved in solving thirty-four crystal structures submitted to the Protein Data Bank. I am first author on seventeen of these PDB submissions, and my laboratory has solved five crystal structures since I joined the faculty at UAMS. I have an active collaboration (General users proposal, GUP-41183) with the Northeastern collaborative access team (NE-CAT) at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) that grants us access to the 24-ID-E and 24-ID-C beamlines for data collection. The research I pursue is focused on DNA damage tolerance pathways and seeks to provide fundamental insights into how these mechanisms function under basal conditions and how they go astray during tumorigenesis or as a function of age. I have received funding from the National Institutes of Health in the form of an R00 award (GM084460) and a R01 (CA183895). I have established a strong research program with two senior post-doctoral fellows and three Ph.D. students. In less than four years, my team has published nine full, peer-reviewed research articles on which I am corresponding author. Work from my group has recently culminated in a manuscript that reveals important and previously unrecognized properties related to Werner’s syndrome protein (WRN) modulation of polymerase activity during bypass of oxidative DNA damage. Experiments from my group illustrate that WRN has a strong impact on the DNA adduct bypass properties of human DNA polymerases (pols) eta and kappa, inducing more accurate synthesis across oxidative damage (published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry and Nucleic Acids Research). Another study from my laboratory that was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Peter Crooks (UAMS) identified novel small-molecule inhibitors of the replication stress response enzyme human DNA polymerase eta, with the resulting manuscript recently being published in ACS Chemical Biology. We continue to pursue projects related to translesion polymerase activity in cancer and are actively developing new TLS pol inhibitors as a way to sensitize tumors to genotoxic anti-cancer drugs (e.g. cisplatin, doxorubicin). My long-term goal is to contribute in a meaningful fashion to the scientific endeavors that seek to improve human health, our ability to treat disease & our fundamental understanding of living systems.

Metrics

  • h-index: 30
  • Publications: 120
  • Citations: 2,685

Selected Publications

  • Evaluation of the Activity of Monensin and Its Analogs for Modulation of Stem-like Cell Functionality in 2D and 3D Breast Cancer Models (2025)
  • Monensin and Its Analogs Exhibit Activity Against Breast Cancer Stem-Like Cells in an Organoid Model (2025)
  • Abstract 1488: DNA polymerase kappa slows replication fork speed by promoting fork reversal in glioblastoma (2025)
  • Abstract 1333 DNA polymerase kappa (Pol k) promotes replication gap suppression by preventing PrimPol mediated repriming and safeguards genomic stability in Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) (2024)
  • Conservation of the insert-2 motif confers Rev1 from different species with an ability to disrupt G-quadruplexes and stimulate translesion DNA synthesis (2023)
    2 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Anti-glioblastoma activity of monensin and its analogs in an organoid model of cancer (2022)
    22 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Monensin and its analogues show anti‐glioblastoma activity in an organoid model of cancer (2022)
  • 323 Generation of a functional precision medicine pipeline which combines comparative transcriptomics and tumor organoid modeling to identify bespoke treatment strategies for glioblastoma (2022)
  • Site-Specific Synthesis of Oligonucleotides Containing 6-Oxo-M<sub>1</sub>dG, the Genomic Metabolite of M<sub>1</sub>dG, and Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Its In Vitro Bypass by Human Polymerase ι (2021)
    3 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • A Functional Precision Medicine Pipeline Combines Comparative Transcriptomics and Tumor Organoid Modeling to Identify Bespoke Treatment Strategies for Glioblastoma (2021)
    27 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Biobanked Glioblastoma Patient-Derived Organoids as a Precision Medicine Model to Study Inhibition of Invasion (2021)
    23 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Inositol serves as a natural inhibitor of mitochondrial fission by directly targeting AMPK (2021)
    82 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Single and double modified salinomycin analogs target stem-like cells in 2D and 3D breast cancer models (2021)
    13 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Deletion of putative xenobiotic response elements (XREs) in hpol κ alters the replication stress response and overall genomic instability in glioblastoma cells (2021)
  • Selective Binding Of Human Rev1 With G‐Quadruplex DNA Is Determined By A Region Unique to Higher Eukaryotes (2021)

View all publications on OpenAlex →

Federal Grants 2 $3,395,000 total

NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences Contact PI Mar 2024 - Dec 2028

Center for Molecular Interactions in Cancer (CMIC)

National Institute of General Medical Sciences $2,295,000 P20
NSF PI May 2024 - Apr 2028

Replication of G-quadruplex DNA by translesion polymerases

Cross-BIO Activities, Genetic Mechanisms $1,100,000

Grants & Funding

  • Advancing Breast Cancer Treatment through Suppression of Chemo-Resistance UAMS Executive Breast Committee Principal Investigator
  • Functions and Mechanisms of Helicases and G-Quadruplex Nucleic Acids NIH Co-Investigator
  • No FP attached UAMS Executive Breast Committee Principal Investigator
  • Coordinating Translesion DNA Synthesis Opposite Damaged DNA NIH Principal Investigator
  • ABI R. Eoff COBRE FY26 Y2 State of Arkansas Principal Investigator
  • No FP attached UAMS College of Medicine Principal Investigator
  • Seeds of Science Pilot award UAMS Internal Research Awards Principal Investigator
  • Translesion DNA polymerase kappa activity in gliomas NIH Principal Investigator

Collaboration Network

101 Collaborators 19 Institutions 4 Countries

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