Peter Ly

Peter Ly is an Assistant Professor at the Children's Medical Center Research Institute (CRI) and holds secondary appointments in the Department of Cell Biology, Department of Pediatrics, and the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His research focuses on genomic instability and chromothripsis in cancer development.

• B.A. in Biology, Baylor University (2008)
• Ph.D. in Cancer Biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center (2012)
• Postdoctoral training, University of California San Diego & Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (2019)

Research Interests: The Ly Laboratory investigates the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving genomic instability in cancer, including chromothripsis, DNA damage response, mitotic errors, and centromere dysfunction. Their work bridges molecular cell biology and genetics using CRISPR/Cas9, high-resolution microscopy, cytogenetics, and genomics.

Article Trends: Recent publications highlight the role of mitotic errors in generating chromothripsis, DNA repair pathways in genomic instability, and implications for oncogenesis and drug resistance. Key subfields include structural variation, ecDNA, and tumor evolution.

Students & Lab Members:

• Elizabeth (Lizz) Maurais – Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellow
• Bing-Huan (Nemo) Wu – Ph.D. Student
• Justin Engel – Ph.D. Student (2021–2025)
• Alison Guyer – Research Technician (2020–2022) and Graduate Student

Professional Affiliations: Dr. Ly has been a member of the American Society for Cell Biology since 2013.