DNA provides the blueprint for life but the information is constantly eroding due to chemical damage. Evolution provided molecular systems to restore information by repairing chemically damaged DNA. Finding these repair systems in bacteria and humans, essentially unchanged over millennia, reflects their early origins and importance. When a system breaks, mutations accumulate more rapidly posing risks for a species and accelerating onset of age-related disease, including cancer, in humans. In this research stream, students will examine DNA repair systems, hunt for new genes that evolved in archaea, and test whether these archaea genes work to suppress mutations. Discoveries from this work will reveal the origins of DNA repair systems and elucidate adaptations needed for extreme environments such as those found on a young Earth and elsewhere in the universe.