Scientists Solve Structure of DNA Replication, Repair Protein

 

 

Flap endonuclease, FEN1, plays a key role in DNA replication. A team of scientists led by the US Department of Energy's National Lab and Scrapps Research Institution, has solved the structure of the human FEN1. John Tainer  of Berkley Labs stated that FEN1 is important to both DNA repair and replication of 50 million operations. They want to target important repair pathways, in an urgency of cancer research. Without the FEN1 present the excess 5' end of DNA would not be clipped to make way for a new fragment to join. This would lead to mutations or rearrangement resulting in damaged chromosome. How was the compound structured? Simple, well not really, they used a Structurally Integrated Biology for Life Science (SIBYLS). Here they Obtained 20 FEN1 structure and obtained models three conformations of DNA relatively close to FEN1 using Phenix Software. After this process they were able to visibly see the structure at hand. FEN1 plays an essential role in health, especially cancer research. If we find a solution to the mutation of genes that cause cancers, could this FEN1 be a phenomena that results in restoration of mutated genes that cause  other disease in the body.