Study on DNA cell renewal

SCIENTISTS in Edinburgh have carried out a study into DNA that could help shed light on how cell renewal can go wrong.

Researchers have identified thousands of proteins that play a key role in compacting DNA - a crucial process by which DNA is shortened up to 10,000 times to fit inside cells as they split into two.

They hope the findings could shed light on what happens when this packaging process fails and cells divide abnormally, which can lead to cancer or cause developing embryos to miscarry.

Professor William Earnshaw of Edinburgh University's School of Biological Sciences, said: "Until now, our understanding of the way in which DNA moves during cell division was patchy - this latest development allows us, for the first time, to fully identify all the proteins that take part in the process, and how they interact with one another."