Zucai Suo of FSU has discovered that one cell repair pathway, base excision repair, has a built-in mechanism that needs to be captured at a very precise point in the cell life cycle to increase its effectiveness. The research improves understanding of cellular genomic stability and drug resistance.

“Cancer cells replicate at high speed, and their DNA endures a lot of damage. When a doctor uses certain drugs to attack cancer cells’ DNA, the cancer cells must cope with additional DNA damage. If the cancer cells cannot rapidly fix DNA damage, they will die. Otherwise, the cancer cells survive, and drug resistance appears,” said Suo.

• Zucai Suo