Word: rna
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Within a year, Venter had decoded 100,000 letters (the human genome has some 3.1 billion, spelling out some 50,000 different genes, at the best guess). They were hieroglyphics to him, but not, he knew, to living cells, which recognize active genes and spin off single strands of RNA that mirror the DNA's coding. So Venter collected the new RNA, inserting it into bacterial cells and letting them clone junk-free complementary DNA, or cDNA, matching the original genes. His automatic sequencer could then read the letters of these genetic instructions...
DIED. WALDO COHN, 89, Manhattan Project biochemist who helped develop plutonium for the atom bomb; in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Cohn's methods were later used in RNA and DNA research...
...even among the rarefied biotech elite, there are mavericks who think they have a better idea. They want to move one step closer to the gene by targeting the RNA molecules that transfer information from genes to proteins. And they have the perfect molecular tool with which to do it. By synthesizing strands of DNA that are the mirror image of the RNA they wish to block, researchers can produce a drug that is more specific than anything else on the market. Because it interrupts the "sense" that the cell is trying to make of the RNA molecule...
...body. First you download the sequences of perhaps 10,000 genes--every A, C, G and T of the hereditary alphabet--into a computer. Then, still using the computer, you figure out what the mirror image of each sequence would be. (DNA can mirror itself as well as RNA.) The aim is to transform the mirror-sequence data into actual strands of DNA that are planted like rows of corn on the glass bed of a chip. Each strand is built up, letter by letter, in much the same way the layers in a silicon chip are created...
Once the strands are complete, the gene chip is ready for use. You take a sample of blood from a patient who has just developed a raging HIV infection. Various genes in his immune system are churning out millions of RNA molecules that will assemble the proteins needed to combat the infection. You extract the RNA and break it into pieces, tag each piece with a fluorescent chemical and pour the whole mess over the gene chip. The RNA tightly binds only to its exact DNA complement on the chip. The fluorescent tag tells you where on the chip...