Abnormal DNA maintenance related to cancer
DNA, like houses and cars, needs ongoing maintenance. Rays of ultraviolet sunlight, chemical pollutants and normal biochemical processes in the cell can damage it. Cells routinely repair this damage before making proteins or copying DNA for cell division. The repairs are remarkably accurate in normal cells but cancer cells make far more mistakes in fixing their DNA. Alan Tomkinson, PhD, University of New Mexico Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Director of Basic Research at the UNM Cancer Center, wants to understand why and how these repair mechanisms go awry in cancer cells. This understanding could lead to new targets for cancer drugs. Dr. Tomkinson recently won a 4-year $1 million grant renewal to continue his 18-year research investigation on DNA ligases, the enzymes that repair DNA strands.