Notwithstanding the central biological role of the (6-4) photoadduct in the induction of skin cancer by sunlight, crucial mechanistic details about its formation have eluded characterization despite efforts spanning more than half a century. In this contribution published in Nature Communications titled “Detection of the thietane precursor in the UVA formation of the DNA 6-4 photoadduct”, graduate students Luis Ortiz-Rodríguez and Sean Hoehn from The Crespo Group show, by optical spectroscopies and computations, the details of the formation of a (6-4) photoadduct via the thietane intermediate in a single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide. @CCrespo2012

The article has been featured in the Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights webpage.