LncRNA FAL1 - The Dragon Cancer Oncogene Found In Junk DNA
Sunday, September 7, 2014 - 15:20
in Biology & Nature
In order to understand the genesis and treatment of cancer scientists are searching for links between genetic alterations and those diseases. Historically, most of those studies have focused on the portion of the human genome that encodes protein – about 2 percent of human DNA overall. The vast majority of genomic alterations associated with cancer lie outside protein-coding genes, in what biologists call "junk DNA" and that colloquially became considered junk to the public, even though that is no more accurate than the Higgs boson being an actual God Particle. "Junk DNA" is anything useless rubbish – much of it is transcribed into RNA, for instance - but finding meaning in the sequences remains a challenge. read more