Cancer, which affects millions every year, requires proteins to spread through the body. In a new strategy to beat the wide-ranging disease, scientists are sabotaging its protein factories. In a new forum paper published on March 16, 2023 in Trends in Biology, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte encapsulated the young field of nucleolar DNA damage response (DDR) pathways. The review highlights six mechanisms by which cells repair DNA damage, including one which was published five months ago in Nucleic Acids Research by the same authors. By attacking these mechanisms, future applied researchers might be able to trip up cancer’s reproduction and growth. “The whole purpose of the Trends paper is to bring attention to scientists in the field and trigger their research,” says Shan Yan, PhD, the main author. “I did not realize the significance of this field, which is only fifteen years old, until a couple of years ago.” The review is titled “Molecular Mechanisms of Nucleolar DNA Damage Checkpoint Response.”