By: 

Alexandros Georgakilas, DNA Damage Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens

Title:

Complex DNA damage: from detection to biological importance

Abstract:

Ionising radiation is a known DNA damaging agent that induces clusters of damage containing a diversity of DNA lesions like double strand breaks, single strand breaks and base lesions within a short DNA region of up to 15–20 bp. These damage clusters are repair resistant, increasing genomic instability leading to malignant transformation and can be considered as persistent “danger” signals promoting chronic inflammation and immune response, causing detrimental effects to the organism (like radiation toxicity). It is necessary to better understand the mechanistic links between the induction of complex DNA damage, its processing, and systemic effects at the organism level, like genomic instability and immune responses.