Wednesday, October 06, 2004
A Non-political Post
(What, such things exist? Ed. Yes, amazing, isn't it?)
The October, 2004 issue of Scientific American has an interesting article at page 60 about new research that suggests that the intron DNA in complex organisms (like humans) that doesn't code for proteins has an important regulatory role. The article proposes that the so-called "junk" DNA is transcribed and processed into RNA segments that have a direct role in many cellular processes, including such things as determining what kind of tissue a particular stem cell may give rise to.
This research has application in such areas as the cause and treatment of genetic diseases, cancer and susceptibility to viruses, as well as implications for the development of new drugs. Exciting stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised to be reading a lot more about this in the foreseeable future.
The October, 2004 issue of Scientific American has an interesting article at page 60 about new research that suggests that the intron DNA in complex organisms (like humans) that doesn't code for proteins has an important regulatory role. The article proposes that the so-called "junk" DNA is transcribed and processed into RNA segments that have a direct role in many cellular processes, including such things as determining what kind of tissue a particular stem cell may give rise to.
This research has application in such areas as the cause and treatment of genetic diseases, cancer and susceptibility to viruses, as well as implications for the development of new drugs. Exciting stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised to be reading a lot more about this in the foreseeable future.
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