Dr. Engel was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, where she obtained her microbiology degree (Licenciatura) at the University of Costa Rica. She obtained her doctoral degree from the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. She did her postdoctoral research at Tulane University with Dr. Prescott Deininger. She has been a faculty member at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in the Department of Epidemiology since 2004 and is a member of the Molecular Genetics Program of the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium. Dr. Engel is studying the role of environmental exposure on human retroelement activation and their contribution to cancer. This research includes the understanding of the basic mechanism of retroelement amplification and their regulation.
Gasior, S.L., Roy-Engel, A.M., and Deininger, P.L. (2008) ERCC1/XPF limits L1 retrotransposition. DNA Repair (AMS), 7:983-9. (PMCID: PMC2483505).
Wallace, N., Wagstaff, B.J., Deininger, P.L., and Roy-Engel, A.M. (2008) LINE-1 ORF1 Protein enhances Alu SINE Retrotransposition. Gene, 419:1-6. (PMCID: PMC2491492).
Comeaux, M.S., Roy-Engel, A.M., Hedges, D.J. and Deininger, P.L. (2009) Diverse cis factors controlling Alu retrotransposition: What causes Alu elements to die?, Genome Res., 19: 545-555. (PMCID: PMC2665774).
Kroutter, E.N., Belancio, V.P., Wagstaff, B.J., and Roy-Engel, A.M. (2009) The RNA polymerase dictates ORF1 requirement and timing of LINE and SINE retrotransposition., Plos Genetics, 5:e1000458. PMID: 19390602. (PMCID: PMC2666806).
Belancio, V.P., , Roy-Engel, A.M., Pochampally, R.R.Deininger, P. (2010) Somatic expression of LINE-1 elements in human tissues, Nucleic Acids Res. 2010 Jul 1;38(12);3909-22 PMID 20215437
Belancio VP, Deininger PL, Roy-Engel AM. (2009) LINE dancing in the human genome: transposable elements and disease. Genome Med. 2009 Oct 27;1(10);97
Belancio VP, Roy-Engel AM, Deininger PL.(2010) All y'all need to know 'bout retroelements in cancer. Semin Cancer Biol. 2010 Aug;20(4);200-10. PMID: 20600922
