Advances in genomics will revolutionize our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of disease, including the complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Genomics is also stimulating the discovery of breakthrough health-care products by revealing thousands of new biological targets for the development of drugs and by giving scientists innovative ways to design new drugs, vaccines and DNA diagnostics. Nucleic acids were so named because they were originally discovered within the nucleus of cells, but they have since been found to exist outside the nucleus as well. Some drugs work well in some patient populations and not as well in others. Studying the genetic basis of response to therapeutics allows drug developers to more effectively design therapeutic treatments.
Some proteins contain more than one polypeptide chain.
If a scientist needs to detect the presence of a very small amount of a particular DNA sequence, PCR can be used to amplify the amount of that sequence until there are enough copies available to be detected. A molecule composed of amino acids linked together in a particular order specified by a gene's DNA sequence. As the chain of amino acids is being synthesized, it is also folded into higher order structures shaped, for example, like helices or flat sheets. Proteins are required for the structure, function and regulation of cells, tissues and organs in the body. The study of the proteins that genes produce and the changes in protein expression patterns in different environments and conditions.