News

MIT researchers have now developed a way to determine, by sequencing DNA of liver cells, whether those cells have been exposed to aflatoxin. This profile of mutations could be used to predict whether someone has a high risk of developing…

Chronic inflammation caused by disease or exposure to dangerous chemicals has long been linked to cancer, but exactly how this process takes place has remained unclear. Now, a precise mechanism by which chronic inflammation can lead to cancer has been…

In the 1970s, epidemiologists found that workers in factories using vinyl chloride, the key ingredient for PVC plastics, had unusually high rates of a rare form of liver cancer called angiosarcoma. Biologists later identified a mutation that appears to be…

Fifteen years ago, MIT professor John Essigmann and colleagues from the University of Washington had a novel idea for an HIV drug. They thought if they could induce the virus to mutate uncontrollably, they could force it to weaken and…

The new manuscript, titled "Tautomerism provides a molecular explanation for the mutagenic properties of the anti-HIV nucleoside 5-aza-5,6-dihydro-2′-deoxycytidine" has been published this week in the early edition of PNAS. The paper studies the mechanism of mutagenesis of the anti-HIV compound…