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Updated: Oct 23, 2025

Free Radicals in Chemical Biology: from Chemical Behavior to Biomarker Development
Published on: April 15, 2013
Radicals in Biology: Your Life Is in Their Hands
JoAnne Stubbe1, Daniel G Nocera1
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States.
Abstract:
Radicals in biology, once thought to all be bad actors, are now known to play a central role in many enzymatic reactions. Of the known radical-based enzymes, ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) are pre-eminent as they are essential in the biology of all organisms by providing the building blocks and controlling the fidelity of DNA replication and repair. Intense examination of RNRs has led to the development of new tools and a guiding framework for the study of radicals in biology, pointing the way to future frontiers in radical enzymology.
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