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Workers representing the repair system known as nucleotide excision repair (NER), repairing DNA and snakes, representing proteins that bind DNA at gene promoters, potentially preventing them from doing this. Credit: Jackie Mostek

DNA repair is compromised at important regions of our genome, shedding new light on the human body’s capacity to repair DNA damage, UNSW medical scientists have discovered. Repairing damage in DNA from anything that causes a mutation, such as UV radiation and tobacco smoke, is a fundamental process that protects our cells from becoming cancerous.

The scientists analysed > 20 million DNA mutations from 1,161 tumours across 14 cancer types...

Slices of collapsing gas within dark matter halos on three different spacial scales: from 10,0000 to 10 light years across. The colors represent the gas density, from low density (blue color) to much larger density (red color). The gas on the smallest spatial scales is going to form a supermassive black hole. Credit: Isaac Shlosman, University of Kentucky

Often containing more than a billion times the mass than our Sun, supermassive black holes have perplexed humans for decades. But new research by astrophysicist Isaac Shlosman and collaborators will help to understand the physical processes, providing details of how supermassive black holes formed 13 billion years ago...