ESP Biography

DNA is essential for life; it's a key building block that encodes the information to make all living things. But what happens when catastrophe strikes, when this key molecule breaks? Will your DNA now code for a lemon? The answer is no- your cells have developed ways to repair DNA. DNA repair can fix either intentional breaks (one reason for variation between people) or accidental breaks (if left unfixed, they are some of the reasons we get diseases like cancer). While we know that malfunctions in DNA repair can contribute to cancer, recent medical research has shown that this malfunction can also be a source of vulnerability and a target for cancer therapy. You'll get a crash course on how cells fix different types of DNA damage and how different DNA repair processes are associated with diseases and therapies.