Researchers pinpoint new role for enzyme in DNA repair, kidney cancer
Monday, June 9, 2014 - 12:02
in Biology & Nature
The enzyme Set2 is a major player in DNA repair, a complicated and crucial process that can lead to the development of cancer cells if the repair goes wrong. "We found that if Set2 is mutated, DNA repair does not properly occur" said one researcher. "One consequence could be that if you have broken DNA, then loss of this enzyme could lead to downstream mutations from inefficient repair. We believe this finding helps explain why the human version of Set2 -- which is called SETD2 -- is frequently mutated in cancer."