WRN identified as new synthetically lethal target

As part of an effort to exploit synthetically lethal interactions for therapeutic use, three groups independently identified a new target, a DNA helicase called WRN, in cancers with DNA microsatellite instability.

Two teams -- one from a Wellcome Sanger Institute-led public-private collaboration that included GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) and the other led by Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers -- detailed their findings in a pair of papers published Wednesday in Nature. ...