DNA Damage Repair

DNA damage repair (DDR) processes are critical for maintaining healthy cells, while potentially serving as promising targets for inducing synthetic lethality in cancer cells.

DNA damage, resulting in base mismatches, bulky adducts, cross-links, single strand breaks, or double strand breaks, can occur from a variety of exogenous and endogenous mechanisms.

In response to such DNA damage, mammalian cells employ an array of mechanisms to repair the damaged DNA. Certain types of DNA damage will trigger specific response pathways that include a defined set of proteins responsible for initiating and carrying out repair functions. In addition, repair pathways can also trigger cell cycle regulation, stress responses, and apoptosis.