While most known types of DNA damage are fixed by our cells’ in-house DNA repair mechanisms, some forms of DNA damage evade repair and can persist for many years, new research shows. This means that ...

Every time a cell divides, it must copy its DNA with extraordinary precision. But this process is constantly challenged by ...

Despite progress in defining functional elements of noncoding DNA, it is still not fully understood. Researchers, using an experiment that elucidated the function of tens of thousands of noncoding ...

A team of researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center has identified a new pathway through which mutations in the tumor suppressor p53 gene—found very frequently in human tumors—hijack DNA ...

Only around two percent of the human genome codes for proteins, and while those proteins carry out many important functions of the cell, the rest of the genome cannot be ignored. However, for decades ...

DNA replication is one of life’s most precise and essential processes, ensuring genetic information is faithfully passed from cell to cell and generation to generation. This remarkable molecular ...

The microbial toxin colibactin has just the right shape to snuggle up to DNA — but its embrace is unfortunately more cancerous than cozy. Colibactin is produced by bacteria in the gut and causes ...