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Red-haired people are known for pale skin , freckles, poor tanning ability and unfortunately, an increased risk for developing skin cancer. Research has shown that they have variants in Melanocortin 1 Receptor (MC1R), a protein crucial for pigmentation in humans, but how this translates to increased risk for cancer and whether that risk can be reversed has remained an active area of investigation -- until now. For the first time, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that there is a way to reduce cancer risk in redheads. These findings appear in the journal  Nature . Specifically they proved that MC1R, the protein involved in pigmentation , is affected by a special modification process called palmitoylation that is critical for its function. By enhancing palmitoylation in the variant MC1R proteins of redheads cancer risk can be reduced. Making up one to two percent of the world's population, redheads carry variants of MC1R which are respon...