Delving into the Choreography of DNA Repair

Photo: Coriell Institute for Medical Research COLD STORAGE: Cells from Coriell Institute for Medical Research that have been collected by and distributed to scientists from around the world, have played a key role in advancing the understanding of DNA repair. If early conceptions of DNA repair could be characterized as a dance, the process essential for maintaining genomic stability could be portrayed as an enzyme-to-enzyme pas de deux. However, a more accurate understanding of this DNA repai

Written byPaul Smaglik

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Photo: Coriell Institute for Medical Research

COLD STORAGE: Cells from Coriell Institute for Medical Research that have been collected by and distributed to scientists from around the world, have played a key role in advancing the understanding of DNA repair.

If early conceptions of DNA repair could be characterized as a dance, the process essential for maintaining genomic stability could be portrayed as an enzyme-to-enzyme pas de deux. However, a more accurate understanding of this DNA repair model in development now requires a more complex molecular choreography--an elaborate Broadway production whose players include genetics, structural biology, and signal transduction.¹

"Our goal is to take our understanding of the individual excision enzymes to the next level [and] understand not only enzyme structure, DNA damage recognition, and catalysis for individual steps, but also how the enzyme and DNA conformational changes and timing allow directed channeling of damaged DNA; in other words, [to ...

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