Photo taken by: ἀλέξ

Recently, finding the cure to cancer has been the goal of thousands of bright-eyed scientists around the world. This summer, members of the University of Atlanta, led by Mark Glover, published a study in a medical journal, Structure. In this study, they made some breakthroughs concerning the behavior of two proteins that are involved in repairing DNA: BRCA1 & TopBP1. To put it in very simple terms, BRCA1 brings in proteins to repair the DNA strand if it is damaged, while TopBP1 makes sure that the DNA can copy itself and alerts proteins to help repair it. All along, scientists thought that both of these proteins acted in the exact same way. This new research concluded that their results may be similar, but they respond to a problem in very different ways. The scientists believe that this new information could be used in order to inhibit the repair and copying of the DNA found in cancerous cells. They are currently studying why the TopBP1 chooses to work with the protein it does, and trying to figure out ways that medicine could change the way that these proteins work in order to improve cancer treatments. Do you think that this is in fact the next step to finding a cure to cancer? I think that this new information could induce a big change in how we view cancer treatment. This article, entitled “Discovery about DNA repair could lead to improved cancer treatments” is an intriguing read in my opinion, because so much emphasis is put in the scientific world on curing cancer. It is, after all, the next big step that many are fighting to accomplish first.

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