Renier Velez-Cruz, Ph.D.

Dr. Velez-Cruz obtained his bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus, where he developed an interest in chemotherapeutic drugs that damage DNA. After completing his degree, Dr. Velez-Cruz moved to Nashville, TN to begin his graduate work at Vanderbilt University. During his graduate work Dr. Velez-Cruz worked in type II DNA topoisomerases and their interaction with endogenous DNA lesions. After completing his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Dr. Velez-Cruz moved to Strasbourg, France for a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institut de Genetique et Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC). At the IGBMC Dr. Velez-Cruz worked on the genetic diseases Xeroderma pigmentosum and Cockayne syndrome and the transcriptional response to DNA damage in cells from these patients. After his post-doctoral fellowship Dr. Velez-Cruz returned to the US and became a research instructor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, where he started his work in DNA double strand break repair. In 2017 Dr. Velez-Cruz joined Midwestern University to continue his research in the repair of DNA double strand breaks, the transcriptional response to DNA damage, and the improvement of the efficacy of cancer therapies.