Michael J. Lichten

Lichten has played a role in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which meiotic recombination occurs in budding yeast, from describing the locations of meiosis-specific double-strand breaks to the demonstration of multiple pathways of repairing these lesions that lead to genetic diversity through gene conversion and crossing-over. He developed robust methods for the isolation and characterization of intermediates of recombination, which contributed to the description of many molecular events. He demonstrated the key role of Cdc5 kinase in regulating the steps required to complete meiotic recombination and described the central importance of BLM helicase in directing recombination to different possible homologous targets.