Investigating the Etiology of Genomic Rearrangements in Human Cancers

A given species, such as human, is defined by the genetic material known as DNA. Human DNA is composed of 24 distinct large molecules, known as chromosomes. It has been well known that DNA is abnormal in human cancer cells, and such abnormalities are commonly known as mutations. One type of mutation known as rearrangements, where different chromosomes are joined to form a novel chromosome, has been shown to drive many human cancers (e.g., the well-known Philadelphia chromosome). It remains poorly understood how these rearrangements happened.