Raluca Mihaela Gordan

Raluca Mihaela Gordan serves as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics at Duke University and is a Member of the Duke Cancer Institute Division of Integrative Genomics. Her work bridges computational biology, genomics, and cancer research with significant contributions to understanding transcription factor mechanisms.

Education

• Ph.D., Duke University, 2009

Research Focus

Dr. Gordan's research centers on transcription factor dynamics and their role in DNA damage susceptibility, mutagenesis, and cancer development. Her lab employs computational genomics and high-throughput data modeling to investigate how transcription factor binding sites become mutation hotspots due to environmental exposures like UV radiation and smoking. She pioneered discoveries showing transcription factors inadvertently 'lock in' DNA mistakes, contributing to genomic instability in melanoma and smoking-related cancers. Her work extends to regulatory genomics in Alzheimer's disease and protein engineering for DNA-binding specificity.

Publication Trends

Analysis of her 2021-2025 publications reveals three dominant themes: (1) Mechanistic studies of transcription factor binding and UV-induced DNA damage in cancer genomes, (2) Computational modeling of cooperative DNA-binding and mutation patterns, and (3) Translational applications in cancer driver identification and protein design. Her work consistently integrates wet-lab validation with algorithmic innovation, with increasing focus on clinical implications for precision oncology.

Grant Leadership

Dr. Gordan directs multiple major federally funded projects:

• ETS-family Transcription Factor Mediated Control of Pulmonary Inflammation (NIAID, 2023-2028)
• NSF/MCB-BSF: Transcription Factor Binding & UV Lesion Accumulation (NSF, 2023-2027)
• Design/Prioritization of Human Genome Perturbations (NHGRI, 2021-2026)
• Duke FUNCTION Center: Noncoding Causes of Disease (NHGRI, 2020-2025)
• Training Program in Bioinformatics/Cancer Immunology (NCI, 2020-2026)

Research Infrastructure

She leads the Gordan Lab within the Duke Cancer Institute, maintaining strong collaborations with molecular biologists and clinicians. Her team develops open-source computational tools for genomic analysis and participates in Duke's Summer Scholars in Genome Sciences program. Current efforts focus on predicting mutation hotspots in cancer genomes and engineering DNA-binding proteins for therapeutic applications.