SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Understanding how kangaroos repair their DNA could be the key to preventing skin cancer, according to Australian and Austrian researchers.

The teams are investigating a DNA repair enzyme found in kangaroos and many other organisms, but not humans, that is very effective in fixing a particular type of damage linked to many skin cancers.

The research is led by Dr. Linda Feketeova and Dr. Uta Wille from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne, along with scientists from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. "As summer approaches, excessive exposure to the sun's harmful UV light will see more than 400,000 Australians diagnosed with skin cancer," Feketeova said.