A defense protein that causes cancer

(Université de Genève) Cancer is caused by the growth of an abnormal cell which harbours DNA mutations. A few years ago, scientists have identified an important mutagen which lies in our own cells: APOBEC, a protein that usually functions as protecting agent against viral infection. Today, a team led by Sergey Nikolaev, geneticist at the University of Geneva, has deciphered how APOBEC takes advantage of a weakness in our DNA replication process to induce mutations in our genome.