Summary
PROJECT SUMMARY Somatic mutations accumulate daily in every cell of the human body. These mutations originate from mutational processes due to environmental exposures, lifestyle choices, defective cellular machineries, and even normal cellular activities. Each mutational process imprints a characteristic pattern of mutations on the genome of somatic cells, termed “mutational signature”. Since somatic mutations are retained in the genomes of cells and their progenies, the presence of mutational signatures in a somatic genome serves as an “archaeological imprint” of the activities of the mutatio