By Sashini Ranawana For over 3.8 billion years, Life has evolved within the constraints of four bases. Four seemingly unremarkable nucleotides, which have succeeded in giving rise to every single organism currently known to man. Together they constitute the genetic code: a language system which plays a critical role in the fundamental mechanisms of transcriptionContinue reading “Life beyond four bases”
Category Archives: Molecular Biology
The Power of a Single Cell
By Aarushi Bellani One of the turning points in molecular biology research emerged with the discovery of Sanger sequencing in the 1970s. This technique enabled scientists to accurately determine the contents of the genome of any organism from a microscopic virus (Sanger et al., 1977) to human beings themselves (Lander et al., 2001). After itsContinue reading “The Power of a Single Cell”
Myonuclei’s survival through atrophy
By Safiya Aldris Many people fear that if they begin working out and are unable to maintain their programme, all their previously gained strength and stamina will vanish, making their efforts a waste of time. The “myonuclear domain hypothesis” backs this up, stating that a nucleus controls a defined volume of cytoplasm; when muscles experienceContinue reading “Myonuclei’s survival through atrophy”
The Biology of Taste: Insights into Flavour Perception
By Ethan Sim “Taste” is a deceptively simple label for a complex biological phenomenon. Strictly speaking, taste (gustation) refers only to what the tongue can detect – sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savoury (umami) (Sherman, 2019). Yet, the phrase “tasting food” is commonly used to describe the process of flavour perception. Flavour perception involves moreContinue reading “The Biology of Taste: Insights into Flavour Perception”
Hair-bearing skin organoids offer valuable insights into human skin development and pathology
By Yeji Hong A new approach to curing baldness may be on the horizon, as researchers have successfully produced hair-bearing skin organoids. Skin organoids are 3D cell culture models composed of layers of epithelial cells, called epidermal and dermal layers, and these organoids are made with the intent to mimic the function and structure ofContinue reading “Hair-bearing skin organoids offer valuable insights into human skin development and pathology”
An Introduction to Cancer Metabolism and its Importance in Therapy
By Hung-Hsi (Chelsea) Chen People say that cancer is triggered by mutations in cells, which eventually lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation. However, DNA mutations occur all the time, even up to a trillion mutations a day. To come up with treatments, it is imperative to understand how cancer cells differ from normal cells, in termsContinue reading “An Introduction to Cancer Metabolism and its Importance in Therapy”
Imperial Bioscience Review 