1 May 2018

Scientists enhance understanding of cancer development mechanisms

An interdisciplinary research collaboration has taken a significant step towards understanding the mutational causes of cancers, a finding which may one day lead to personalised cancer treatment. The team from the University of Dundee, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the Wellcome Sanger Institute used a type of worm called C. elegans as a model to study how cancer-causing genetic mutations arise when DNA is inaccurately replicated or when damaged DNA is not repaired. Cancer is caused by the accumulation of mutations. A major challenge is to understand the mutagenic processes that silentl...