NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Shedding light on proteins, nucleic acids, cells, humans and fishI was trained as a physicist in graduate school. Hence, when I decided to go into the field of biophysics, it was natural that I concentrated on the effects of light on relatively simple biological systems, such as proteins. The wavelengths absorbed by the amino acid subunits of proteins are in the ultraviolet (UV). The wavelengths that affect the biological activities, the action spectra, also are in the UV, but are not necessarily parallel to the absorption spectra. Understanding these differences led me to investigate the action spectra for affecting nucleic acids, and the effects of UV on viruses and cells. The latter studies led me to the discovery of the important molecular nature of the damages affecting DNA (cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers) and to the discovery of nucleotide excision repair. Individuals with the genetic disease xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) are extraordinarily sensitive to sunlight-induced skin cancer. The finding, by James Cleaver, that their skin cells were defective in DNA repair strongly suggested that DNA damage was a key step in carcinogenesis. Such information was important for estimating the wavelengths in sunlight responsible for human skin cancer and for predicting the effects of ozone depletion on the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer. It took experiments with backcross hybrid fish to call attention to the probable role of the longer UV wavelengths not absorbed by DNA in the induction of melanoma. These reflections trace the biophysicist's path from molecules to melanoma.
Document ID
20040088405
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Setlow, Richard B.
(Brookhaven National Laboratory P.O. Box 5000, Upton, NY 11973, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
March 1, 2002
Publication Information
Publication: Mutation research
Volume: 511
Issue: 1
ISSN: 0027-5107
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
NASA Discipline Radiation Health
Non-NASA Center
Biography

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available