The Human Genome Project has been the catalyst for thousands of research studies and exciting discoveries. One study in 2011 found a gene variant in a small group of French Canadians that researchers called a “fountain of youth” gene. This gene is called PCSK9Q152 — the superscript describes it as a variant of the gene PCSK9. In 2011,...
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In Oncology Basics 2016 part 1, we examined the elegance of the cells that make up our body. In Oncology Basics 2016 part 2, we explored what holds the instructions for life–DNA–and the special processes of self-replication and transcription that are used to pass on and translate those instructions. Now we will try to connect the...
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The Central Dogma of Biology Doesn’t the title above sound imposing? Yet this central idea has moved biological science forward over the last 60 plus years. What we know about cells, genetics and cancer today relies on this “Dogma”: DNA carries our hereditary information and transfers that information in a process called transcription. In...
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You’re in the doctor’s office filling out paperwork. There are questions to answer about your health, but also about the health of your parents, grandparents and siblings. You scratch your head, panic a little, then leave lots of blank spaces, hoping the information won’t be relevant to today’s visit. Regrettably those spaces–that...
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