Researchers Use Supercomputer to Show How Proteins Help DNA Replicate Past a Damaged Site

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Somewhere far, far from Seattle, the sun is damaging people’s skin. In fact, ultraviolet light, oxidants, and environmental toxins constantly assault the genome of a cell, and without our body’s ability to repair DNA, we would all be subject to accelerated aging, degenerative disease, or even cancer.

A multi-institutional research team led by Ivaylo Ivanov of Georgia State University has employed the Jaguar XT4 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and x-rays a billion times brighter than the sun, produced at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to illuminate how DNA replication continues past a damaged site so a lesion can be repaired later.

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