DNA replication and repair happens thousands of times a day in the human body and most of the time, people don't notice when things go wrong thanks to the work of Replication protein A (RPA), the "guardian of the genome." Scientists previously believed this protein "hero" responsible for repairing damaged DNA in human cells worked alone, but a new study by Penn State College of Medicine researchers showed that RPA works with an ally called the WAS protein (WASp) to "save the day" and prevent potential cancers from developing.