Tuesday, July 27, 2010

How a Key Enzyme Repairs Sun-Damaged DNA

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 27, @03:58AM
from the one-proton-and-one-electron dept.
BraveHeart writes"Researchers have long known that mammals, including humans, lack a key enzyme — one possessed by most of the animal kingdom and even plants — that reverses severe sun damage. For the first time, researchers have witnessed how this enzyme works at the atomic level to repair sun-damaged DNA. 'Normal sunscreen lotions convert UV light to heat, or reflect it away from our skin. A sunscreen containing photolyase could potentially heal some of the damage from UV rays that get through.'"

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