Building on basics

DNA repair shop
(continued)

Using advanced imaging techniques, lasers and fluorescent dye, researchers were able for the first time to produce a video clip of RecBCD unwinding DNA strands. Their work was published in the January 18 issue of Nature.

Last year, Kowalczykowski began working with Larry Thompson of Lawrence Livermore's Biology and Biotechnology Resource Program and Wolf-Dietrich Heyer, a UC Davis microbiologist, on DNA repair breaks.

"Working with Lawrence Livermore is a good complementary relationship," said Kowalczykowski, who has two grants from the National Institutes of Health to study DNA recombination. "Their group is strong in mammalian cellular genetics; we bring the biochemistry. Everyone realizes we have common interests."

The implications for this work are impressive. If researchers can master double strand break repairs, they could short-circuit cancer before it starts. Gene therapy could become a reality.

Science fiction, or science fact? Time will tell.

"Research in gene therapy is growing exponentially. We already have successes in animal cells," Kowalczykowski said. "In 10 or 20 years we'll see this in the therapeutic arena."