Recipients

Our cells have a built-in safety mechanism to protect against DNA damage. This mechanism, called homologous recombination (HR), helps repair the genomic damage that can eventually lead to cancer. But when cancer does strike, this formerly-helpful mechanism becomes an obstacle: malignant cells can use HR to resist radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Kamakshi Balakrishnan is studying Rad51, an enzyme that plays a key role in HR. Modulating this enzyme could hinder the ability of cancer cells to use HR, making radiation and chemotherapy more effective. Balakrishnan is using synchrotron light to study the structure of Rad51 in human cells, yeast and archaea microorganisms.

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