{"id":223098,"date":"2025-10-08T15:13:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/traffic-controller-protein-that-protects-dna-discovered-and-it-may-help-kill-cancer-cells"},"modified":"2025-10-08T15:13:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:13:48","slug":"traffic-controller-protein-that-protects-dna-discovered-and-it-may-help-kill-cancer-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/traffic-controller-protein-that-protects-dna-discovered-and-it-may-help-kill-cancer-cells","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Traffic controller\u2019 protein that protects DNA discovered, and it may help kill cancer cells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/traffic-controller-protein-that-protects-dna-discovered-and-it-may-help-kill-cancer-cells.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that acts like a traffic controller for DNA, preventing damage during cell division\u2014a discovery that could lead to new cancer therapies, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09585-9\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> published in Nature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDNA is the code of life. It\u2019s critical for how a cell functions, but it\u2019s also critical for our own being and defines what we are,\u201d says Zhenkun Lou, Ph.D., the Swanson\/Schmucker Endowed Professor to Support Health and Cancer Research at Mayo Clinic and the senior author of the new study.<\/p>\n<p>When cells divide, DNA must be copied from one cell to the next\u2014a process called replication. Dr. Lou\u2019s research team discovered that a protein called KCTD10 plays a surprising role in protecting DNA during this critical stage. Acting like a built-in sensor, KCTD10 helps shield the DNA replication <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/machinery\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">machinery<\/a> from damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that acts like a traffic controller for DNA, preventing damage during cell division\u2014a discovery that could lead to new cancer therapies, according to a study published in Nature. \u201cDNA is the code of life. It\u2019s critical for how a cell functions, but it\u2019s also critical for our own [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1495],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}