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Updated: May 10, 2026

Atomic Force Microscopy Investigations of DNA Lesion Recognition in Nucleotide Excision Repair
Published on: May 24, 2017
How nucleotide excision repair protects against cancer
1Department of Pathology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75390-9072, USA. errol.friedberg@utsouthwestern.edu
Abstract:
Eukaryotic cells can repair many types of DNA damage. Among the known DNA repair processes in humans, one type--nucleotide excision repair (NER)--specifically protects against mutations caused indirectly by environmental carcinogens. Humans with a hereditary defect in NER suffer from xeroderma pigmentosum and have a marked predisposition to skin cancer caused by sunlight exposure. How does NER protect against skin cancer and possibly other types of environmentally induced cancer in humans?
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