Grant: Project Grant

Genome instability is the loss or rearrangement of genetic material. A major source of genomic instability is DNA damage that is not properly repaired. Genome instability drives tumor formation and develops before cancer can even detected. A double strand break (DSB) is one of the most dangerous type of DNA damage because DNA ends are generated at internal genomic regions. Normally, cells have the ability to detect damage, protect the broken ends, and activate repair machinery that puts the DNA double helix back together without the loss of important genetic material. However, if there are defects in these repair factors then the DNA ends can interact with other regions of the genome. When this happens, deletions and rearrangements in the genetic material develop and a cell does not function properly and can convert to a cancer cell. Understanding how DNA repair factors function at the molecular level has therapeutic implications. For example, novel and more sophisticated cancer treatments can be designed to target cells with defective repair machinery.