Latest Homologous recombination Stories
Double-strand breaks in DNA happen every time a cell divides and replicates. Depending on the type of cell, that can be pretty often. Many proteins are involved in everyday DNA repair, but if they are mutated, the repair system breaks down and cancer can occur. Cells have two complicated ways to repair these breaks, which can affect the stability of the entire genome. Roger A. Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., associate investigator, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute and associate professor...
Cancer cells are resourceful survivors with plenty of tricks for staying alive. Researchers have uncovered one of these stratagems, showing how cells lacking the tumor suppressor BRCA1 can resume one form of DNA repair, sparing themselves from stagnation or death. The study appears in the January 21st issue of The Journal of Cell Biology. The BRCA1 protein helps to mend double-strand DNA breaks by promoting homologous recombination. Without it, cells can amass broken, jumbled, and fused...
Listed below are the selected highlights for the July 2012 issue of the Genetics Society of America's journal, Genetics. The July issue is available online at www.genetics.org/content/current. Please credit Genetics, Vol. 191, JULY 2012, Copyright © 2012. ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS Increasing association mapping power and resolution in mouse genetic studies through the use of meta-analysis for structured populations, pp. 959-967 Nicholas A. Furlotte, Eun Yong Kang, Atila Van Nas, Charles R....
Corrected cells are generating normal neurons in mouse model of the disease Researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging have corrected the genetic mutation responsible for Huntington's Disease (HD) using a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) that came from a patient suffering from the incurable, inherited neurodegenerative disorder. Scientists took the diseased iPSCs, made the genetic correction, generated neural stem cells and then transplanted the mutation-free cells...
Researchers at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center capture a major chemotherapeutic target in complex with DNA damage, revealing novel targets for new PARP-1 inhibitors A new study published in Science May 11 is shedding light on the molecular details of PARP-1, a DNA damage-detecting enzyme that when inhibited has been shown to be effective in fighting cancer and other diseases. The investigation led by John M. Pascal, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and...
Scientists from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology have discovered a key element in the mechanism of DNA repair. When the DNA double helix breaks, the broken end goes searching for the similar sequence and uses that as a template for repair. Using a smart new dual-molecule technique, the Delft group has now found out how the DNA molecule is able to perform this search and recognition process in such an efficient way. This week, the researchers report their...
It's been more than 50 years since James Watson and Francis Crick showed that DNA is a double helix of two strands that complement each other. But how does a short piece of DNA find its match, out of the millions of 'letters' in even a small genome? New work by researchers at the University of California, Davis, handling and observing single molecules of DNA, shows how it's done. The results are published online Feb. 8 by the journal Nature. Defects in DNA repair and copying are strongly...
Looking for ways to halt the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells, scientists at Johns Hopkins have found that a new class of drugs, called PARP inhibitors, may block the ability of pre-leukemic cells to repair broken bits of their own DNA, causing these cells to self-destruct. Results of their experiments, expected to be presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego, Dec. 12, have already prompted clinical trials of the drugs in patients with...
Findings suggest how cancer cells can become resistant to DNA damage-inducing treatments An international team of scientists led by UC Davis researchers has discovered that DNA repair in cancer cells is not a one-way street as previously believed. Their findings show instead that recombination, an important DNA repair process, has a self-correcting mechanism that allows DNA to make a virtual u-turn and start over. The study's findings, which appear in the Oct. 23 online issue of the...
In children with genomic disorders, often a gamete – egg or sperm – has gone disastrously awry with either a duplication or deletion of genetic material that results in physical and neurological problems for the subsequent child. Previous studies have identified a procedure called nonallelic homologous recombination, which occurs during meiosis or sexual cell division, as the event that most commonly occurs and results in this mistake in DNA. Researchers from Baylor College of...
