Gene Editing: Past, Present and Future
Genes, Proteins, and DNA
The human body is made up of trillions of cells. Most recent estimates put the number of cells at approximately 30 trillion. (Written out, that’s 30,000,000,000,000) Cells are the building blocks of all living things — they have many different parts, each with different functions.
Each cell has a set of instructions for making us, like a recipe book for the body. This set of instructions is called our genome and is made up of deoxyribonucleic acids, DNA.
DNA is a long molecule that holds our unique genetic code. It contains the instructions for making all the proteins in our body. Each cell in the body has the same set of instructions, a copy of your genome made up of DNA. In fact, as you read this article, the cells in your body are dividing and the DNA in the cells is being copied.
There is a unique chemical code within DNA that guides our health and growth. This code is determined by the order of the four nucleotide bases that make up DNA. A nucleotide’s molecular structure is composed of a nitrogen-containing unit (base) linked to a sugar and a phosphate group.
