Molecular Biology from Rita's P.O.V

DNA. Everyone should know how important DNA is. DNA, its so small, yet it is so complex and so important. It is essentially the manuscript to your life. However, what if I told you that there was a significant portion of your DNA that was junk? Pointless? Absolutely unnecessary? Hopefully, some of y'all would say that is a little extreme, but not that long ago, this is what most scientists thought. So, let me elaborate. The "junk DNA" that I am referring to is the portion of DNA that does not code for proteins, otherwise called non-coding DNA. Now, non-coding DNA doesn't sound half as bad as junk DNA, but this term was formally coined in 1972 by Susumo Ohno. Although, Ohno coined the term, David Comings was the first to discuss the nature of junk DNA and this idea became really popular in the 60s. It was found that of the 20,000 genes that humans have, only 1.2 percent of these genes actually code. The remaining 98.8 percent are noncoding genes. Non-coding DNA i...

New discoveries are being made every day in the field of molecular biology, but the most recent and interesting find this week has to do with the most dangerous form of malaria. So, before we get into the article I found, I wanted to brush up on some background information of malaria. Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. Once infected, an individual could experience fever, chills, and other flu-like symptoms. If left untreated, one could develop severe complications and ultimately die. Some statistics from the Centers for Disease Control states that malaria, in 2015, affected roughly 212 million people, killing roughly 429,000. So, now that we all know how serious malaria, I would like to introduce an article that may have an answer to improving the vaccine for Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Plasmodium falciparum malaria is the most deadly form and an international research team has found that carbohydrates on the surface of the malaria parasite plays a criti...

Last week I discussed just how far and how important molecular biology is. So, I've decided that from here on out, I will discuss some more advances in the field that I find particularly interesting. This week, I found an article that discusses how scientists revealed some new insights on the structure of the integrin-laminin interaction. Okay, at first I didn't know what the integrin-laminin interaction was either, so I did further research. Integrins are "transmembrane receptors that facilitate cell-extracellular matrix adhesion". Laminins, on the other hand, are proteins of the extracellular matrix that are a very key component of the basal lamina. So, both integrins and laminin involve the extracellular matrix. Together, they help the cell function by allowing differentiation to occur. The integrity is a receptor for the laminin and this interaction has just been cleared up just a little bit more. In an article previewed on sciencedaily.com, a group of Japanes...

So, to start out this blog, I believe we should have a certain understanding of what molecular biology really is and what it has accomplished. Later, I will point out something specific that is happening in this day and age within the field of molecular biology. What is molecular biology? When googled, molecular biology is defined as "the branch of biology that deals with the structure and function of the macromolecules (e.g., proteins and nucleic acids) essential to life." To get a little more clear, molecular biology helps us understand what happens within us and every other living organism. From the interrelationship of DNA to how proteins interact and are regulated, molecular biology has played a role in the understanding of these various systems. Molecular biologists usually utilize other areas of the sciences during their research, including genetics and biochemistry. This helps you understand just how connected all the sciences really are. So, what has molecular bi...