© Ana Amorim
The composition and sequence of 3 billion bases of DNA serve as a major determinant of our individual physiology. Unfortunately, our DNA is constantly being challenged by agents that arise from either normal metabolism or exposures to natural or artificial products in the environment. Agents from sunlight to chemicals, ionizing radiation, and oxygen radicals can either directly damage bases or break the phosphodiester backbone on which the bases reside.
We can reduce but probably never eliminate exposure. Thus, we must rely on the elegant mechanisms our cells have developed to repair damage. Individuals who inherit mutations in DNA-damage response genes can exhibit many clinical problems, including cancer predisposition, neurodegeneration, increased cardiovascular disease, and premature aging.1 Thus, a broad range of physiologic processes depends on cellular responses to DNA damage.
But for all the important roles such responses play, little effort has been directed at manipulating these pathways ...
