A new pan-cancer study has uncovered a shared vulnerability across multiple aggressive cancers and sheds light on the role that BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) plays in recognizing DNA damage. Researchers from Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Medical School in Singapore discovered that the loss of BAP1 – a mutation found in mesothelioma, cholangiocarcinoma, renal cell carcinoma and uveal melanoma – creates a specific defect in how cancer cells recognize and repair DNA damage.