DNA integrity is always under attack from environmental agents like skin cancer-causing UV rays. How do DNA repair mechanisms detect and repair damaged DNA, and what happens when they fail?

Especially the latter poses a great challenge for long-term space travel, and so people are working on various concepts to protect astronauts’ DNA from being smashed by cosmic rays. This has ...

Sunburns and aging skin are obvious effects of exposure to harmful UV rays, tobacco smoke and other ... protein complexes to cut out (excise) damaged DNA with surgical precision.