Page last updated at 23:16 GMT, Thursday, 8 July 2010 00:16 UK

 

A team from the University of Dundee said they believed the finding could have implications for the future treatment of cancer.

 

They have discovered a protein, known as FAN1, which plays a vital role in maintaining healthy DNA.

 

Researchers described the protein as "molecular scissors" which repair damaged DNA in human cells.

 

This could help to prevent mutations which eventually lead to cancer.

 

Dr John Rouse, who is heading the team behind the discovery, said a major problem with DNA is that it is regularly damaged.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/10559880.stm

 

 

Article

Identification of KIAA1018/FAN1, a DNA Repair Nuclease Recruited to DNA Damage by Monoubiquitinated FANCD2

 

Journal: Cell

Edited July 9, 201015 yr by Genecks

Interesting article. Is there any indication that this same protein is used by other organisms? One would suppose something like this should be conserved.

It does not say if everyone has protein FAN1 or if the protein FAN1 that gets damage what will happen.

 

 

And I do not think they understand how the protein FAN1 works.