Until now, a crucial step in the biosynthesis of iridoids, a class of plant defense substances that are also medically relevant, had remained undiscovered. A team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, in collaboration with the University of Georgia and other international partners, has now identified the enzyme responsible for this step in icepac. This enzyme shows great potential for the future biotechnological production of important iridoids and cancer drugs derived from them.

The human repairome, REPAIRome, will allow researchers around the world to rapidly check out how each of the 20,000 human genes affects DNA repair.

Created by researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), it is published today in the journal Science.

The human repairome is ‘a powerful resource for the scientific community’, the authors write in Science. It has ‘implications for human health, including cancer treatment’.

It also allows progress ‘towards full control of CRISPR-Cas gene-editing technologies’, they add.

The repairome is ‘a platform for new discoveries,’ says CNIO researcher Felipe Cortés. It has already helped to detect new genetic mechanisms involved in kidney cancer.