Researchers studying mouse proteins uncover part of ‘choreography of immunity’

Rearranging the genome is a risky endeavor, and human cells reserve it for special occasions, like making egg and sperm cells. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine announce they’ve learned how an enzyme that reshuffles DNA on one of those rare occasions—during the birth of new white blood cells—helps ensure the process doesn’t go haywire. Their results are described online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.