Preventing cells from getting the kinks out of DNA
Friday, May 21, 2010 - 09:51
in Health & Medicine
(PhysOrg.com) -- Many standard antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs block the enzymes that snip the kinks and knots out of DNA -DNA tangles are lethal to cells - but the drugs are increasingly encountering resistant bacteria and tumors. A new discovery by University of California, Berkeley, biochemists could pave the way for new research into how to re-design these drugs to make them more effective poisons for cancer cells and harmful bacteria.