Scientists produce the scrip...( ughput biological and computing technol...)

"A key hurdle we had to overcome was assembling snippets of conversation between genes into a coherent script. We developed new computational techniques, which allowed us to discover the script, visualize it over time, and to check it for accuracy," explains Gifford.

"This study makes a significant contribution to understanding the fundamental organizing principles of life," said James Anderson, program director at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a component of the National Institutes of Health. "It also amply illustrates the synergy that can be generated by biologists and computational experts working together to tackle a systems-level research problem. We are fortunate indeed that such collaborations are becoming more common and that cultural and institutional barriers to such collaborations are beginning to give way."

Transcription Factors Take the Lead

Genomes contain two codes. One, discovered and elucidated over the last 50 years, is biology's central dogma: genes, composed of DNA sequences, specify how proteins are made. But what determines the types and amounts of the various proteins that characterize a particular cell type, be it a skin cell or a blood cell? The genome also specifies the screenplay that coordinates the production of these proteins, and, in turn, how living cells develop and respond to changes in environment.

Special proteins called transcription factors read a cell's script and perform as lead actors to cue the production of necessary proteins (including the transcription factors themselves), by binding to specific genes. This process, called gene expression, is the basis for all cellular functions, and is highly complicated even in the simplest of cells.

Young's group used a technique ca
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Contact: Nadia Halim
halim@wi.mit.edu
617-258-9183
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
24-Oct-2002