The concentration in genetics provides a solid foundation for those planning careers in medicine, and there is a growing demand for geneticists in pure and applied research.
Developments in biotechnology have shown the potential for using genetic techniques to synthesize complex proteins for medical and commercial use, for developing new drugs and chemotherapeutic agents for cancer and other diseases, for improving crop plants and animals, and for understanding and controlling pathogenic organisms, including fungi and bacteria.
In addition, gene therapy that replaces defective genes with intact copies is becoming a medical reality. Many students are now choosing to combine their studies of genetics with related fields such as business or public policy, with a view to managerial positions in biotechnology fields, or positions in government or law. Students fulfilling the requirements of the Area of Concentration in Genetics will receive a note on their official transcript.
Amy Bejsovec, Department of Biology phone: e-mail: bejsovec duke. Dong, X. Sherwood, N. And researchers Spiders' Web Secrets Unraveled. Using a novel technique, researchers have been able What Makes Us Human? Stem cell researchers have now found a previously overlooked This movement is made Yet others live barely Their varied lifespans make rockfish a unique genus in which to pinpoint genes It was originally used in "genome," which refers to all the genes in a person or other organism.
Due to the success of large-scale biology projects such as the sequencing of the human genome, the suffix "-ome" is now being used in other research contexts. Proteomics is an example.
The DNA sequence of genes carries the instructions, or code, for building proteins. Proteomics, therefore, is a similar large-scale analysis of all the proteins in an organism, tissue type, or cell called the proteome.
Proteomics can be used to reveal specific, abnormal proteins that lead to diseases, such as certain forms of cancer. The terms "pharmacogenetics" and "pharmacogenomics" are often used interchangeably in describing the intersection of pharmacology the study of drugs, or pharmaceuticals and genetic variability in determining an individual's response to particular drugs. The terms may be distinguished in the following way.
Pharmacogenetics is the field of study dealing with the variability of responses to medications due to variation in single genes. Pharmacogenetics takes into account a person's genetic information regarding specific drug receptors and how drugs are transported and metabolized by the body.
The goal of pharmacogenetics is to create an individualized drug therapy that allows for the best choice and dose of drugs. One example is the breast cancer drug trastuzumab Herceptin. This therapy works only for women whose tumors have a particular genetic profile that leads to overproduction of a protein called HER2. See: Genetics, Disease Prevention and Treatment.
Pharmacogenomics is similar to pharmacogenetics, except that it typically involves the search for variations in multiple genes that are associated with variability in drug response. Since pharmacogenomics is one of the large-scale "omic" technologies, it can examine the entirety of the genome, rather than just single genes.
Pharmacogenomic studies may also examine genetic variation among large groups of people populations , for example, in order to see how different drugs might affect different racial or ethnic groups.
Pharmacogenetic and pharmacogenomic studies are leading to drugs that can be tailor-made for individuals, and adapted to each person's particular genetic makeup. Although a person's environment, diet, age, lifestyle, and state of health can also influence that person's response to medicines, understanding an individual's genetic makeup is key to creating personalized drugs that work better and have fewer side effects than the one-size-fits-all drugs that are common today.
For example, the U. Food and Drug Administration FDA recommends genetic testing before giving the chemotherapy drug mercaptopurine Purinethol to patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Some people have a genetic variant that interferes with their ability to process this drug. This processing problem can cause severe side effects, unless the standard dose is adjusted according to the patient's genetic makeup. See: Frequently Asked Questions about Pharmacogenomics.
Stem cells have two important characteristics. First, stem cells are unspecialized cells that can develop into various specialized body cells. Second, stem cells are able to stay in their unspecialized state and make copies of themselves.
Embryonic stem cells come from the embryo at a very early stage in development the blastocyst staqe. The stem cells in the blastocyst go on to develop all of the cells in the complete organism.
Adult stem cells come from more fully developed tissues, like umbilical cord blood in newborns, circulating blood, bone marrow or skin. Medical researchers are investigating the use of stem cells to repair or replace damaged body tissues, similar to whole organ transplants.
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