SARS-CoV2 infection causes DNA damage in vitro and in vivo in COVID-19 patients: distinct SARS-CoV2 viral proteins both promote degradation of the DDR enzyme, Chk1, and outcompete 53BP1 for binding to DNA damage-induced long non-coding RNAs, thus preventing repair of DSBs (Gioia et al., 2023). The gene discussed is TP53BP1; the disease is COVID-19.