A collaboration between researchers at the Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) in London and the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, has solved a decades-old mystery which could pave the way to better cancer treatments in the future.

The work, which uncovered the basic mechanism of how one of our most vital DNA repair systems recognizes DNA damages and initiates their repair, has eluded researchers for many years. Using cutting edge imaging techniques to visualize how these DNA repair proteins move on a single molecule of DNA, and electron microscopy to capture how they "lock-on" to specific DNA structures, this research opens the way to more effective cancer treatments.